This is a book review that has been sitting in my Drafts folder for ages. Until today, when a prompt from the publisher reminded me that I need to wrap this post up and let it see the light of day!
Anon: Book Synopsis
Welcome to Calcutta of the sixties and the seventies.
Meet Debottam, the genius vagabond son of a wealthy zamindar.
Meet Urbish, the ambitious dreamer whose father is a fisherman.
Walk with them through the red earth of Shantiniketan.
Visit the jazz clubs of Park Street.
Experience friendship redefined by two people who have only one thing in common writing.
But one is willing to kill to write and the other is willing to die.
Anon. Short for Anonymous.
After all what’s in a name?
~ Synopsis from goodreads
Anon: My Review
This is Bhavani Iyer’s first book, and color me super-duper impressed! I absolutely loved the setting of 60s and 70s Calcutta (now Kolkata). When done well, I love a good historical book, and the settings in Anon were really done well.
I also loved the relationship between the two protagonists – Debottam and Urbish. They are complete opposites of each other.
You are a rock, Urbish. Strong, moral, reliable. Deb, he’s a livewire, just waiting to explode in your face!
~ ANON
Their relationship should absolutely not work. They have nothing in common. Except for one thing – their love for literature and writing brings them together. There’s just a slight difference though, one is willing to die to write and the other is willing to kill to write.
So, I loved all the characters in the book. Especially Urbish is great. His determination and steely grit really warmed my heart towards him.
The one thing that didn’t quite work was the pace of the book. It is on the slow side, but I was able to overlook it just because of the beautiful writing.
Overall, highly recommend this book. It’s a little hidden gem.
Huge thanks to Fingerprint Publishing for sending me this book for review consideration.
