{"title":"Raj Kamal Jha","description":"\u003cp\u003eExplore the poignant and thought-provoking novels of Raj Kamal Jha. Delve into themes of identity, loss, and resilience, all rendered with lyrical prose. Perfect for readers seeking deeply moving and evocative stories.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"if-you-are-afraid-of-heights-book-raj-kamal-jha-9780330493277","title":"If You Are Afraid of Heights","description":"From the author of The Blue Bedspread, a wonderful new novel about family, fantasy and love. Amir, Mala and their daughter are normal people. Amir goes to his office; Mala reads the newspaper; their young daughter plays alone. But Jha has not chosen to tell a tale of everyday life in Calcutta. Instead he looks inwards at the elaborate stories that people tells themselves. In the looking-glass world of the novel, nothing is quite what it seems. And yet, at the same time, it is all very familiar. 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It is undeniably powerful’ - Evening Standard  In a house on a Calcutta street, lit by the half-light of a yellow street lamp, lies a baby, one day old, wrapped in its hospital towel. In the next room sits a man, all alone, writing.  Who is this man, at once frightened and determined? What is he writing? Where has the baby come from and where will it go? Tonight, these questions will be answered when the man unravels the dark secrets he has carried all his life . .  In The Blue Bedspread Raj Kamal Jha's poetic prose echoes the loneliness of the human condition.   ‘Enchanting . . . Jha is not afraid to risk emotion, but he never falls into the trap of sentimentality. That is, in itself, a considerable achievement’ - Daily Telegraph  ‘Jha has a real knack for narrative, alternating urgency and delay to the point where his virtuoso handling of the story becomes almost tricksy . . . He is a remarkable writer’ - Sunday Times  ‘A powerful, haunting and sometimes shocking novel that deserves to be read at one sitting and then re-read’ - Irish Times  ‘This is an incantatory, audacious book, notable for great moments of poignancy’ - Guardian","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49564619768081,"sku":"GOR012954710","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49726988321041,"sku":"GOR013774462","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49777888133393,"sku":"NGR9781035004836","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51824854302993,"sku":"GOR014413583","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1035004836.jpg?v=1751206219"},{"product_id":"the-city-and-the-sea-a-novel-book-raj-kamal-jha-9780670090440","title":"The City and the Sea : A Novel","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49593053053201,"sku":"GOR012038259","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0670090441.jpg?v=1751008499"},{"product_id":"blue-bedspread-book-raj-kamal-jha-9780330373852","title":"The Blue Bedspread","description":"The story opens as an old man is asked to collect his sister's baby from the hospital in Calcutta where his sister has just died. 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Who is this man, at once frightened and determined? What is he writing? Where has the baby come from and where will it go? Tonight, these questions will be answered when the man unravels the dark secrets he has carried all his life. 'A ghostly, elliptical piece of prose of quite magical quality, which tells the story of one man's reconciliation with his past ...It is undeniably powerful' Edward Marriott, Evening Standard 'Enchanting ...Jha is not afraid to risk emotion, but he never falls into the trap of sentimentality. That is, in itself, a considerable achievement' Andrew Biswell, Daily Telegraph 'Jha has a real knack for narrative, alternating urgency and delay to the point where his virtuoso handling of the story becomes almost tricksy ...He is a remarkable writer' Phil Baker, Sunday Times 'A powerful, haunting and sometimes shocking novel that deserves to be read at one sitting and then re-read' Cormac Kinsella, Irish Times 'This is an incantatory, audacious book, notable for great moments of poignancy' Baret Magarian, Guardian Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award Winner of the Best First Book Commonwealth Writers' Award for the Eurasia region","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49612591694097,"sku":"GOR006442688","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49639184204049,"sku":"GOR004506697","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0330373862.jpg?v=1751070973"},{"product_id":"fireproof-book-raj-kamal-jha-9780330493765","title":"Fireproof","description":"February 2002. A helpless nation watches as the city of Ahmedabad in India is rocked by religious violence. Before sunrise the next day, more than a hundred Muslim men, women and children will be killed, most of them burnt alive. Above the smoke and flames, the dead decide to intervene.   So begins Fireproof, Raj Kamal Jha’s mesmerizing new novel, in which the murdered whisper from footnotes and photographs. At the heart of the novel is its narrator Jay – a man who carries with him an unspeakable secret and a newborn baby – and a mystery woman, who writes with her fingers on glass, drawing man and child out of their home and on a journey across the burning city.   From the author of The Blue Bedspread and If You Are Afraid of Heights, comes a work of fiction that challenges the way we look at the most twisted events of our times. 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Beautiful, beguiling and audacious, this is the story of a city and its people, of love and horror, of belonging and forgiveness: a powerful and unforgettable tale of modern India.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49628973662481,"sku":"GOR007344820","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49652286292241,"sku":"GOR011169640","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1408855070.jpg?v=1750921797"},{"product_id":"if-you-are-afraid-of-heights-book-raj-kamal-jha-9780151011094","title":"If You Are Afraid of Heights","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50040931189009,"sku":"CIN0151011095VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50084287840529,"sku":"CIN0151011095G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0151011095.jpg?v=1750812098"},{"product_id":"the-blue-bedspread-rare-book-raj-kamal-jha-1659944994mhp","title":"The Blue Bedspread","description":"1999. First Published. 228 pages. Signed by the author. Pictorial dust jacket over blue cloth. Signed by the author with dedication to title page. 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He must go to the hospital to identify the body and claim his sister's orphaned newborn daughter until she can be adopted the next day.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e During the long hot night, the baby sleeps on a bedspread that used to be indigo blue, but has faded to almost white. As the child lies where the man and his sister used to sleep as children, he quietly writes stories for her, telling of his own childhood full of intensity, anguish, and poetry. He doesn't know his place in the world, but with the help of these stories, the baby someday might.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Raj Kamal Jha's ethereal, poetic prose echoes the loneliness of the human condition.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50345904800017,"sku":"CIN0156010887G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52734448337169,"sku":"NIN9780156010887","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52772332830993,"sku":"CIN0156010887VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0156010887.jpg?v=1751069922"},{"product_id":"blue-bedspread-book-raj-kamal-jha-9780375503122","title":"The Blue Bedspread","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50350728478993,"sku":"CIN0375503129G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0375503129.jpg?v=1750813650"},{"product_id":"fireproof-book-raj-kamal-jha-9780330493772","title":"Fireproof","description":"'Fireproof ventures where reportage cannot go, granting even those who have perished a voice' Observer February 2002. A helpless nation watches as the city of Ahmedabad in India is rocked by religious violence. Before sunrise the next day, more than a hundred Muslim men, women and children will be killed, most of them burnt alive. Above the smoke and flames, the dead get together and decide to intervene in the life of a father whose wife has just given birth to their first child. 'The newborn at the centre of the novel, named Ithim by his father, is so helpless, so defenceless, that his presence is commanding, and the sense of foreboding surrounding him is fully realised and sustained throughout ...Fireproof is a novel about the limits of representation, and the figure of the baby, and all he has endured, is emotionally resonant in the extreme' Irish Times 'The novel focuses on conveying the voices of the dead, while exploring a more universal culpability and the workings of conscience and redemption' Guardian","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50531297984785,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50531298935057,"sku":"GOR002185798","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51595037245713,"sku":"GOR013699476","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53076472201489,"sku":"GOR001772873","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0330493779.jpg?v=1764844461"},{"product_id":"blue-bedspread-book-raj-kamal-jha-9781447274865","title":"The Blue Bedspread","description":"Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award Winner of the Best First Book Commonwealth Writers’ Award for the Eurasia region  ‘A ghostly, elliptical piece of prose of quite magical quality, which tells the story of one man’s reconciliation with his past . . . 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