Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, a born and bred Bombaywallah, was educated in India, England, and America. A past contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle and Elle, he divides his time between the San Francisco Bay Area and Bombay.
A San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2004 A San Francisco
Chronicle Bestseller Winner of a Betty Trask Award for Debut Novel
A 2006 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Finalist "A lively debut gives
vivid magical-realist form to the necessity of loving others--and
the sorrows to which doing so exposes us. Shanghvi's warm, witty
omniscient narrative voice gets the story off to a dazzling start.
. . . The gorgeous atmosphere and verbal trappings make this
wonderful novel as insistently readable as it is--particularly in
its moving final pages--immensely satisfying. Salman Rushdie,
Arundhati Roy, Hari Kunzru et al. need to make room on the podium.
Booker judges should pay attention too." --Kirkus Reviews, starred
review "The vibrant, lush, and sometimes chaotic backdrop of
post-colonial India has become fertile ground for a burgeoning
circle of Indian novelists that Shanghvi now joins. His first novel
blends biting social commentary with a sprawling family saga . . .
In a narrative laced with poetic imagery, Shanghvi juxtaposes
political commentary with magical realism, Bollywood's excesses
with Gandhi's austerity. Part fairy tale, part satire, part love
story--all come together in a marvelously inventive debut."
--Booklist "In his first novel, Bombay-born Shanghvi carves a magic
realism-tinged niche for himself between Salman Rushdie and
Arundhati Roy. . . . A sensual, delectable debut." --Publishers
Weekly "An impressive debut . . . It opens like a fairy tale. . . .
The novel remains a love story told with wit, even ribald humor,
wrapped in a magic realism to rival Gabriel Garc�a M�rquez.
Shanghvi enchants readers with delectable images and sensual
scenes. From Arundhati Roy to Jhumpa Lahiri to Kiran Desai, India
has produced outstanding fiction of late, and this exemplary first
novelist will easily hold his own among them. Highly recommended."
--Library Journal "A vividly imagined story . . . Magic realism and
a fairy tale meet and merge in a swirl of colorful, outrageous
storytelling that has rightfully put the fledgling novelist on the
literary map. . . . Shanghvi--who's been compared to Arudhati Roy,
Zadie Smith, and Vikram Seth--combines ribald humor with prose
poetry, rich sensuality with social politics, and tall tales with
enduring human truths in this epic story of a family in 1920s
Bombay. . . . Shanghvi paints a weeping, hue-saturated picture . .
. more with a loose and lucid language. His timeless love story is
sometimes hilarious, frequently sad, and mostly fantastical. From
the flash of Bollywood to the sweetness of meditative solitude,
Dusk pours out a cornucopia of life at full tilt and high color."
--Oregonian "Is he the next Arundhati Roy, or Salman Rushdie
version 7.0, or Zadie Smith crossed with Vikram Seth? In the end,
The Last Song of Dusk might evoke whiffs of all of them, but the
book is nobody's love child but Shanghvi's--lush, witty, and
eventually achingly sad. . . . [Written in] eye-popping, sassy
prose . . . The Last Song of Dusk moves like a carnival ride. . . .
Shanghvi is a literary rock star. . . . A lush, wildly imaginative
fairy tale, The Last Song of Dusk blazes with erotica, floats on
magical-realist flights, and unravels a fever of images that read
as if they were coaxed through dreams or hallucinogens. . . . Such
an impressive first novel, so sensuous in language and bold in its
willingness to risk excess." --San Francisco Chronicle "A gorgeous
novel . . . written with a youthful, twinkling eye." --Los Angeles
Times Book Review "A sweeping love story that will stay with you
even after you turn the final page." --Asian Week "A magical piece
of storytelling set in an India that's full of eccentric characters
and colorful, descriptive language." --Sunday Times (London)
"Dazzling in a way that reminded me of Truman Capote's Other
Voices, Other Rooms." --John Berendt, author of Midnight in the
Garden of Good and Evil and City of Falling Angels "He could be the
next Arundhati Roy." --India Today "A cross between Zadie Smith and
Vikram Seth." --Hindustan Times "Terrific . . . Reminds me of so
many great debuts--Salman Rushdie's, of course, but also Kiran
Desai, Hari Kunzru." --David Davidar, author of The House of the
Blue Mangoes "A magical debut. Madcap characters shimmy across the
pages, throwing out slangy witticisms with insouciant charm. . . .
Delicious." --Elle (UK edition) "What begins as an erotic fairy
tale grows into an exploration of love and loss, sexuality and
innocence, friendship and solitude. . . . Shanghvi's loose poetic
style [is] cut with a dash of magical realism . . . [and his] story
has eloquent insights into the nature of love." --Times Literary
Supplement "The new star of Ind Lit." --Calcutta Statesman "An
extravagant, lush tale of love in Bombay." --Bookseller(India)
"[An] exuberant performance, part of the post-magical realist trend
in Indo-English fiction--with its fantasy, pastiche, and satire,
and tendency to turn every seed of imagination into a towering tree
. . . Shanghvi's extravagant prose teems with adjectives, adverbs
[and] personifications." --The Independent "This is a modern fairy
tale about love and kismet that touches all the senses." --Company
Magazine (UK) "A gently magical taste of India." --Mirror "You
can't help but fall in love with each character in this sweeping,
epic tale . . . The novel is beautifully paced, exploring huge
themes--fate, death, lasting love, vengeance, ambition, acceptance
and--via tiny moments--the trickiness of life. The author twists
words mercilessly, his choice of language veering between delicate
beauty and raucous irreverence. And there's some extraordinarily
fantastic, surprising writing about sexual organs: read it and
weep." --INK "The magical tale of an Indian family dealing with
love, loss and long forgotten secrets." --Heat "A mixture of
magical-realism, tragic-comedy, and prose poetry, this debut novel
sweeps readers into a tale as old as time, populated by
eccentrically beautiful characters . . . A sure shot on the
best-seller list." --Good Book Guide "A promising debut novel, The
Last Song of Dusk is a vivid picture of love and loss in colonial
India." --The List "The recent spate of magic-realism novels by
writers with one foot in the Raj has been an engaging cultural seam
. . . Shanghvi offers a little something extra . . . Like Kunzru,
Shanghvi places his characters in historically auspicious
circumstances, as if the voice of modernity has entered a time
machine." --i-D magazine "A literary sensation." --India Currents
"Written in Technicolor, with all the sights and smells of India,
The Last Song of Dusk is a witty and achingly sad book by a
talented young debut novelist. The colorful characters steal your
heart and transport you to a magical world. The book reads like a
carnival ride--it's about colonization, love, karma, tragedy, and
the strength of the human spirit. . . . Stunning prose and
storytelling. The Last Song of Dusk is a refreshingly original tale
of fate, love and tragedy . . . that pirouettes between laughter
and heartbreak." --Out Smart "Lush . . . an erotic tale of love and
loss, loaded with magical realism. . . . The aching wisdom in this
meditation on love truly satisfies."
--Newsweek (Asian edition) "Shanghvi's lyrical first novel, The
Last Song of Dusk, is a major achievement: It's impishly funny and
stunningly wise. Like the arranged marriage at its heart, this
steamy fairy tale blossoms into a mind-expanding treasure map for
finding redemption in loss, peace despite life's contradictions,
and the courage to love and live big." --Tango "Sumptuously written
. . . Always fascinating." --Indo-American News
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