The Association of Small Bombs
Published on 14. July 2016
288 pages
978-1-4090-2967-0 (ISBN)
Description
A GRANTA BEST YOUNG AMERICAN NOVELIST 2017
When the Khurana boys and their friend Mansoor set out for one of Delhi's markets, disaster strikes without warning. A 'small' bomb detonates, killing the brothers instantly. Mansoor is one of the few survivors.
From India to America, the lives of victims and bystanders, mothers and fathers, comrades and adversaries are changed forever. Even the young bomb maker cannot escape the heat of the blast.
'I can't remember the last time I read a book which conjured a world so rich and so convincing'
MARK HADDON
'Brilliant... Masterful'
KEVIN POWERS
'Unusually wise, tender and generous'
JIM CRACE
'Breathtaking... Unforgettable'
ADELLE WALDMAN
'Packed with small wonders of beauty and heartbreak that are impossible to resist'
DINAW MENGESTU
When the Khurana boys and their friend Mansoor set out for one of Delhi's markets, disaster strikes without warning. A 'small' bomb detonates, killing the brothers instantly. Mansoor is one of the few survivors.
From India to America, the lives of victims and bystanders, mothers and fathers, comrades and adversaries are changed forever. Even the young bomb maker cannot escape the heat of the blast.
'I can't remember the last time I read a book which conjured a world so rich and so convincing'
MARK HADDON
'Brilliant... Masterful'
KEVIN POWERS
'Unusually wise, tender and generous'
JIM CRACE
'Breathtaking... Unforgettable'
ADELLE WALDMAN
'Packed with small wonders of beauty and heartbreak that are impossible to resist'
DINAW MENGESTU
Reviews / Votes
Wonderful. It is smart, unpredictable and enviably adept in its handling of tragedy and its fallout * New York Times * A superb novel... Mahajan inhabits two sides of a divided India * Financial Times * Extraordinary... A mind-blowing book on many, many levels * BBC Radio 4 * A voracious approach to fiction-making, a daring imaginative promiscuity * New Yorker * In Mahajan's riveting, intricate story, the aftershocks of small bombs are as inescapable as their explosions -- Alex Traub * Vice Magazine * Engrossing... looks at the after-effects of tragedy from the perspective of the victims, survivors and perpetrators -- Sarah Gilmartin * Irish Times * Wonderful... smart, devastating, unpredictable and enviably adept in its handling of tragedy and its fallout. If you enjoy novels that happily disrupt traditional narratives - about grief, death, violence, politics - I suggest you go out and buy this one. Post haste... thrilling, tender and tragic... generous without prejudice, which feels at once subversive and refreshing -- Fiona Maazel * The New York Times Book Review * An utterly brilliant book. Rarely does one encounter a work as masterful in the precision of its writing or as penetrating in the insights it provides. Karan Mahajan is a writer to be admired. -- Kevin Powers Karan Mahajan's thoughtful, touching and perfectly pitched account of two marketplace bombings and the casual havoc they cause in a handful of Delhi families is almost subversive in its even-handedness and its charity. For all its unflinching - and unnerving - fatalism, The Association of Small Bombs is an unusually wise, tender, and generous novel. -- Jim Crace A voracious approach to fiction-making, a daring imaginative promiscuity... he renders the spectacle of the bombing with a languid, balletic beauty, pitting the unhurried composure of his prose against the violence of the events it describes... Mahajan hasn't lost his sharp comic impulses... [Mahajan's] facility for gorgeous turns of phrase produces many passages of vivid, startling power -- Alexandra Schwartz * The New Yorker *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
File size
1,46 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-4090-2967-0 (9781409029670)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Karan Mahajan grew up in New Delhi, India and lives in Austin, Texas. His first novel, Family Planning, was a finalist for the Dylan Thomas Prize and was published in nine countries. The Association of Small Bombs was a finalist for the National Book Award and was selected as one of the New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of 2016. His writing has appeared in many publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New Yorker online and The Believer.
