Ghachar Ghochar: A Novel

"A wise and skillfull book." —Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal "Within the tight confines of a hundred pages or so, Shanbhag presents as densely layered a social vision of Bangalore as Edith Wharton did of New York in The House of Mirth...He's one of those special writers who can bring a fully realized world to life in a few pages." —Maureen Corrigan, NPR "One of the best novels to have come out of India in recent decades." —Pankaj Mishra    A young man's close-knit family is nearly destitute when his uncle founds a successful spice company, changing their fortunes overnight. As they move from a cramped, ant-infested shack to a larger house on the other side of Bangalore, and try to adjust to a new way of life, the family dynamic begins to shift. Allegiances realign; marriages are arranged and begin to falter; and conflict brews ominously in the background. Things become “ghachar ghochar”—a nonsense phrase uttered by one meaning something tangled beyond repair, a knot that can't be untied. Elegantly written and punctuated by moments of unexpected warmth and humor, Ghachar Ghochar is a quietly enthralling, deeply unsettling novel about the shifting meanings—and consequences—of financial gain in contemporary India. Longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award One of the BBC's "10 Books You Should Read in February" One of Publishers Weekly's "Writers to Watch Spring 2017" One of the NewYorker.com contributors' "Books We Loved in 2016"