There is an underworld whisper of a new terror: the Pathar Maar, the stone killer, whose victims are the nameless, invisible poor. Hookers call for custom through the bars of their cages as their pimps slouch in doorways in the half-light. Here, people say that you introduce only your worst enemy to opium. Around her, men sprawl and mutter in the gloom, each one drifting with his own tide. A beautiful young woman leans to hold a long-stemmed pipe over a flame, her hair falling across her dark eyes. In Rashid's opium room the air is thick and potent. "Shortlisted for The Man Booker Prize 2012" - cover. A tale of vice and passion set against a backdrop of late 1970s Bombay finds a New Yorker becoming entranced with the underworld culture of an opium den and brothel where he encounters a pipe-making eunuch, a violent businessman, and a Chinese refugee
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |