Anatomy of a Crime

Nilanjana Roy's new book is more than a crime saga-it pushes readers to know the characters intimately and without judgement

- Aditya Mani Jha

BLACK RIVER

by Nilanjana Roy CONTEXT

₹799; 330 pages

Nilanjana Roy's latest novel, Black River (released recently by Context), begins with the grisly death of eight-year-old Munia, who is found hanging from a tree in the (fictional) Teetarpur, a village on the Delhi-Haryana border. After a gripping first act, however, the novel presses pause on the actual murder investigation. Instead, across Black River's midsection, readers are shown the lives of Chand, his Bengali friend Khalid and his wife, the formidable Rabia, all of whom have left their respective villages to come to Delhi's doorstep.