OH! CALCUTTA

Ruchir Joshi's Great Eastern Hotel is a sweeping historical saga which interleaves several strands of narrative within shifting layers of time

- Manjula Padmanabhan

The novel takes the shape of a vast luxury hotel, situated in Calcutta towards the end of World War II. The characters function like doors into the building. Through them, the sights, sounds and especially the scents of a bygone era flicker to life with the intimacy of dreams.

The main doors into the edifice are the young revolutionary Nirupama “Niru” Majumdar, Imogen Snell, the adventurous Englishwoman and Kedar Lahiri, the artist-playboy affectionately nicknamed “Zamindear”. There are two types of secret entrance. On one floor, there are the British intelligence officers struggling to predict where, how and, especially, if the Japanese will launch an attack on Calcutta’s port. On another corridor altogether and along all manner of back stairs is Gopal, the ambitious young pickpocket who will pick not only our pockets but our hearts too.