'Marvellous ... Richly imagined characters and keen explorations of identity, place, and the power of imagination drive this luminous achievement.'
* Publisher's Weekly, starred review *
'History comes alive in this brilliant, highly-imaginative, and vivid novel. Immersive and revelatory - a stellar achievement.'
-- E. C. Osondu, winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, author of
This House is Not for Sale'Tony, the East Indian of the title of Brinda Charry's utterly enjoyable debut novel, reads like a character straight out of Dickens. Based on an actual historical figure, the first person from India documented in the records of Colonial Virginia, Tony ventures into the entangled richness of a nascent America - a place he calls, this precarious edge of the world. It is peopled by servants - both white and black, female and male - who find themselves as bound to the New World as they are to the Englishmen who rule it. Picaresque in style, lyrical of voice, gripping and authentic, The East Indian is a real treat.'
-- David Wright Falade, author of
Black Cloud Rising'Filled with memorable characters, The East Indian grapples with the brutal colonialism and indentured labour of the 1600s with warmth and wit. An entertaining novel that adds more heft to Brinda Charry's already impressive oeuvre.'
-- Shashi Tharoor, author of
Inglorious Empire and
Why I Am a Hindu'What a vast and wondrous ocean of a novel this is - throwing up the unexpected and startling, the horrifying and utterly beautiful, moving from shore to shore with spectacularly skilful narrative poise. To journey with The East Indian is to journey through a world shape-shifting into the modern, a world being ravaged and transformed. It is to be reminded that amidst the rough sweep and scour of history, what remains precious are these timeless, enduring things - friendship, kindness, healing.'
-- Janice Pariat, author of
The Nine-Chambered Heart and
Everything the Light TouchesPraise for Brinda Charry:
'Brinda Charry is the real thing, a master at the top of her game. Her work engages the human condition and the personal with an intensity and authority that can only be explained by literary grace.'
-- Arthur R. Flowers
