Author: Siddhartha Deb
Publisher: Picador India
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 227
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0330489232
Description
Set in the last decades of the twentieth century in the remote north-eastern hills of India, this is the moving and beautifully written story of a father and a son. Dr Dam and Babu have lived for years as strangers.
He had always been different from the fathers of my friends, but that difference was never more visible than after his retirement. The days were heavy with his presence now, the morning light revealing him squatting on the floor between two open steel trunks, an old, somewhat infirm magician at the centre of a circle of papers and files
But they were strangers tied by blood, strangers in the same home, both puzzled and resentful. But as his father weakens and wearies of life, Babu is drawn closer to him.
Before long he finds himself embarking on a great journey, an odyssey through the memories of his father, his family and his country. From the great tides of violence and fear that sweep a land, to the delicate core of one man’s being, The Point of Return traces the hidden stories about the making and unmaking of India.
EXCERPTS FROM REVIEWS
Although politics permeates every page of Deb’s dark novel, the story- told in reverse chronological order- pivots on the relationship between an enigmatic older man, Dr. Dam, and his stubborn, slightly wild son, Babu.. Deb’s novel is suddenly, stunningly relevant.
-Shout NY
Contents
Prologue:1987
I ARRIVAL
The Pension Office: 1986
Highway Journey:1984
The Minister’s Chambers: 1983
Wedding Season: 1982
Foreign Visitors: 1981
A Tale about Tigers:1980
Blackout:1979
II DEPARTURE
New Year’s Eve: 1987
Learning to walk:1988
Night Journey:1988
III TERMINAL
Home Town
Maps
History
Ships
Memories
Travellers
Dreams
Airports
IV TRAVELOGUE
Learning to Run
The local Archive
A Lesson in History
Leaving Home