Ghachar Ghochar

by Vivek Shanbhag

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Book cover for Ghachar Ghochar

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In this masterful novel by the acclaimed Indian writer Vivek Shanbhag, a close-knit family is delivered from near-destitution to sudden wealth after the narrator's uncle founds a successful spice company. As the narrator - a sensitive young man who is never named - along with his sister, his parents, and his uncle move from a cramped, ant-infested shack to a larger house and encounter newfound wealth, the family dynamics begin to shift. Allegiances and desires realign; marriages are arranged and begin to falter; and conflict brews ominously in the background.

Their world becomes 'ghachar ghochar' - a nonsense phrase that, to the narrator, comes to mean something entangled beyond repair. Told in clean, urgent prose, and punctuated by moments of unexpected warmth and humour, Ghachar Ghochar is a quietly enthralling, deeply unsettling novel about the shifting meanings - and consequences - of financial gain in contemporary India.
  • ISBN10 0571336078
  • ISBN13 9780571336074
  • Publish Date 20 April 2017 (first published 20 December 2015)
  • Publish Status Out of Print
  • Out of Print 7 July 2021
  • Publish Country GB
  • Imprint Faber & Faber
  • Edition Main
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 128
  • Language English