The Lives of Others (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780393247909)

The aging patriarch and matriarch of the Ghosh family preside over their large household, made up of their five adult children and their respective children, unaware that beneath the barely ruffled surface of their lives the sands are shifting. Each set of family members occupies a floor of the home, in accordance to their standing within the family. Poisonous rivalries between sisters-in-law, destructive secrets, and the implosion of the family business threaten to unravel bonds of kinship as social unrest brews in greater Indian society. This is a moment of turbulence, of inevitable and unstoppable change: the chasm between the generations, and between those who have and those who have not, has never been wider. The eldest grandchild, Supratik, compelled by his idealism, becomes dangerously involved in extremist political activism--an action that further catalyzes the decay of the Ghosh home.

Ambitious, rich, and compassionate, The Lives of Others anatomizes the soul of a nation as it unfolds a family history, at the same time as it questions the nature of political action and the limits of empathy. It is a novel of unflinching power and emotional force.

Author: Neel Mukherjee
ISBN-10: 0393247902
ISBN-13: 9780393247909
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English
Published: 10/01/2014
Pages: 528
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.97lbs
Size: 10.05h x 6.24w x 1.57d
Award: Costa Book Awards - Nominee

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 10/06/2014
Publishers Weekly 09/29/2014 pg. 1
Entertainment Weekly 10/24/2014 pg. 71
Kirkus Reviews 10/15/2014
New York Times Book Review 12/28/2014 pg. 12
New Yorker (The) 01/05/2015 pg. 73
New York Times Book Review 01/04/2015 pg. 22
New York Review of Books 10/22/2015 pg. 65