Age of Vice
A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel)
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3.9 • 230 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK
Named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly, Oprah Daily and NPR!
“Dazzling...Finally free from the book’s grip, now all I want to do is get others hooked.”— The Washington Post
“A page-turning social novel…It stirs the pulse while digging into the entrenched and evolving structures and contradictions of modern India.” —NPR
“Cinematic…As a storyteller, Kapoor is a natural.”—The New York Times
New Delhi, 3 a.m. A speeding Mercedes jumps the curb and in the blink of an eye, five people are dead. It’s a rich man’s car, but when the dust settles there is no rich man at all, just a shell-shocked servant who cannot explain the strange series of events that led to this crime. Nor can he foresee the dark drama that is about to unfold.
Deftly shifting through time and perspective in contemporary India, Age of Vice is an epic, action-packed story propelled by the seductive wealth, startling corruption, and bloodthirsty violence of the Wadia family -- loved by some, loathed by others, feared by all.
In the shadow of lavish estates, extravagant parties, predatory business deals and calculated political influence, three lives become dangerously intertwined: Ajay is the watchful servant, born into poverty, who rises through the family’s ranks. Sunny is the playboy heir who dreams of outshining his father, whatever the cost. And Neda is the curious journalist caught between morality and desire. Against a sweeping plot fueled by loss, pleasure, greed, yearning, violence and revenge, will these characters’ connections become a path to escape, or a trigger of further destruction?
Equal parts crime thriller and family saga, transporting readers from the dusty villages of Uttar Pradesh to the urban energy of New Delhi, Age of Vice is an intoxicating novel of gangsters and lovers, false friendships, forbidden romance, and the consequences of corruption. It is binge-worthy entertainment at its literary best.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
We knew nothing about the violent Indian underworld before we started this brilliant novel, but that soon changed. Set in the early 2000s, The Age of Vice interweaves the stories of three troubled characters: Sunny, the son of an infamous crime boss; Ajay, his devoted but troubled servant; and Neda, Sunny’s deeply conflicted journalist girlfriend. When Ajay is thrown in jail for a horrific hit-and-run accident, novelist Deepti Kapoor begins to unspool a breathtaking and ambitious story of class, loss, loyalty, and corruption. With gorgeous writing, she takes us from the abject poverty of rural Uttar Pradesh to the gleaming heights of affluent New Delhi. We couldn’t tear ourselves away as Ajay falls deeper and deeper into Sunny’s world of glamour and debauchery. This is a cinematic and twist-filled story about the dangers of having powerful friends.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Kapoor's searing portrait of India at the turn of the 21st century (after Bad Character), finely wrought characters go to great lengths to escape the bonds into which they were born. Ajay, from a desperately poor family and sold into servitude by his mother at eight in 1991, begins working for Sunny Wadia, an unhappy playboy and scion of a powerful family, in 2001. Sunny's father, Bunty, and mysterious uncle Vicky hold sway over whole swaths of the Indian economy and political landscape. Neda Kapur is a cynical journalist first drawn to Sunny by a corruption story she is writing, but is soon caught in the vortex of Sunny's lavish lifestyle of endless parties, drugs, and conspicuous consumption facilitated by the ever-present Ajay. Sunny dreams of creating new cities and carving a new path for himself, but he is emasculated by his father's hold on the family's empire. As Sunny and his friends' behavior becomes increasingly reckless, Ajay is made a scapegoat for a shocking fatal car accident, and Neda witnesses in full the ethical morass upon which the Wadias' success is built. Kapoor's violent and bitter story is deeply addictive; this spellbinder would be easy to devour in one big gulp, but it's worth savoring for Neda's uncompromising take on what she terms India's "losing age, the age of vice." The author possesses a talent great enough to match the massive scope of her subject.
Customer Reviews
Up and down
This book is a bit of a roller coaster. Sometimes slow paced and other times racing. Easier to read as quickly as possible rather than in small bites.
Certainly a Foray into Something
This book was quite long to say the least. It wasn’t the most boring thing, but it certainly took its time. The story goes very deep into the inner workings of a pessimistic but oftentimes relevant cut into modern India in tandem with character work that is exceptional (however characters tend to get well developed after 500 pages). Readers will feel a lot of empathy for some of these characters as their lives unfurl in front of us. It certainly has an affecting moral by the end, but what it is is foggy.
Insanely good
Best book I’ve read in a year. Can’t recommend it enough!