{"product_id":"70022-the-impressionist","title":"The Impressionist","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAuthor: Hari Kunzru\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Penguin\u003cbr\u003eYear: 2002\u003cbr\u003eLanguage: English\u003cbr\u003ePages: 490\u003cbr\u003eISBN\/UPC (if available): 0143 029762\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e Description\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis novel is a comic saga about history, identity and home.  It is the epochal debut of an exceptional writer.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt the turn of the century in a remote corner of India, an English civil servant and a reluctant Hindu bride cross paths during a cataclysmic rainstorm.  Nine months later a boy is born.  The astrologer's chart does not bode well.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePran Nath's startling whiteness is regarded as a sign of nobility, but when his true parentage is revealed , he is ejected from his father's house and begins a haphazard journey through the bizarre dark side of the British Empire.  Sold to a pair of eunuchs, he is taken to a backwater state in the Punjab and becomes the bait in the dynastic intrigues of a dissolute Indian court.  Escaping to Bombay, he reinvents himself as Pretty Bobby, prince of the red-light district, while around him the Raj slides into decadence and the slums seethe with political discontent.  Then a chance encounter with a drunken Englishman leads to the most daring reinvention of all.  Pran Nath becomes Jonathan Bridgeman, the perfect Englishman.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs he travels across the world, from Bombay to London, from a mouldering Norfolk public school to Oxford and Paris, everyone sees him with a different eye.  He blends in perfectly, until he finds himself part of an ill-fated anthropological expedition in West Africa, picking up the white man's burden for real.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Impressionist is a comic saga about history, identity and home.  It is the epochal debut of an exceptional writer.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eContents\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePran Nath\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRukhsana\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhite Boy\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePretty Bobby\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJonathan Bridgeman\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBridgeman, J P (Barab.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Impressionist\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The India Club","offers":[{"title":"Hari Kunzru \/ Penguin \/ Paperback","offer_id":40776681291945,"sku":"70022","price":37.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0582\/1048\/4393\/products\/70022_751296c8-03d2-4e83-bccf-2992c5cfdd72.jpg?v=1625571513","url":"https:\/\/indiaclub.com\/de\/products\/70022-the-impressionist","provider":"The India Club","version":"1.0","type":"link"}