History's Angel
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
From the Man Asian Literary Prize-longlisted author, the story of a middle-aged man in contemporary India discovering that neither his life nor his country are as stable as he thought.
Alif is a middle-aged, mild-mannered history teacher, living in contemporary Delhi, at a time when Muslims in India are seen either as hapless victims or live threats. Though his life's passion is the history he teaches, it's the present that presses down on him: his wife is set on a bigger house and a better car while trying to ace her MBA exams; his teenage son wants to quit school to get rich; his supercilious colleagues are suspicious of a Muslim teaching India's history; and his old friend Ganesh has just reconnected with a childhood sweetheart with whom Alif was always rather enamored himself.
And then the unthinkable happens. While Alif is leading a school field trip, a student goads him and, in a fit of anger, Alif twists his ear. His job suddenly on the line, Alif finds his life rapidly descending into chaos.
Meanwhile, his home city, too, darkens under the spreading shadow of violence. In this darkly funny, sharply observed and deeply moving novel, Anjum Hasan deftly and delicately explores the force and the consequences of remembering your people's history in an increasingly indifferent milieu.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hasan's erudite and languid novel (after the collection A Day in the Life) traces a series of escalating conflicts for a Muslim history teacher in contemporary Delhi. Alif Mohammed, 40-something and nonobservant, has taught at a private school for 20 years. During a field trip, a rambunctious nine-year-old named Ankit goes missing and then, after he's been found, insults Alif for being Muslim. When Alif twists the boy's ear, the school's new principal suspends him pending an investigation. Alif keeps the news from his wife, Tahira, who is focused on studying for her MBA and anxious to move up in the world. Meanwhile, Alif nurses his jealousy over Tahira's close relationship with their 14-year-old son, Salim. Making matters worse, Alif's parents are clashing with Ahmad, the orphan they took in and raised as a servant who has taken a strongly religious turn as an adult. While the story is slow moving and at times unfocused, Hasan frequently blends her chronicle of Alif's problems with insightful internal monologues, in which he reflects on the country's history and simmering anti-Muslim sentiments. Hasan's layering of history and personal drama accrues a subtle but undeniable power.
