A trenchant, darkly humorous, and unsentimental look at Calcutta
society.
Set in Calcutta in the mid-1980s, Truth/Untruth is a fast-paced
thriller built around the death of the pregnant Jamuna--a maid in a
newly affluent residential apartment complex--and Arjun, the upwardly
mobile businessman who seduced her. Packed with a cast of colorful
characters, this novel is a trenchant, darkly humorous, and
unsentimental look at the different segments of Calcutta society: from
the middle-class culture vultures to the unscrupulous "promoter" class
and the domestic helpers and slum goons who form an intrinsic part of
the city's life. All are implicated in a complex web of guilt and
bizarre twists and turns. Sex, lies, death--the great modernist
themes--run like a thread through this book, exposing societal greed,
lust, corruption, and moral hypocrisy with a sardonic tone that spares
none. An unusual novel by an author who is otherwise known for her
hard-hitting activist-feminist stories, Truth/Untruth underlines the
exploitative vicious cycle that defines urban relations between the
haves and have-nots.
