A great read – especially for us over-50s!

• Book: The Death of Mr Love
• Location: India, Lewes, Mumbai (Bombay)
• Author: Indra Sinha

I loved this book as soon as I’d finished it I turned round and went back to the beginning and read it again right through – all 384 pages – now that I knew the answers to the questions that had popped into my mind as I went along, “He says this – does he really mean it?” He does! Lovely to read something so cleverly written and absorbing.

The story is set in 1999, but flashes back to 1959. Today (i.e. 1999), Bhalu is a middle-aged bookseller living quietly with his wife and daughters in sleepy Sussex. But in 1959, when Bhalu was little, in India, his country of birth, something happened that he didn’t understand… that has never been explained. The death of his mother sets a new train of events in motion, and soon Bhalu is revisiting the land of his childhood for the first time in decades.

The chapters set in India are wonderful! – glorious descriptions of the forested mountains around Bombay, where Bhalu and his childhood friends led a wild and free life. Even better are the chapters set in present-day Mumbai, chaotic, hot and vivid.

Yes, the story is fantastical, and the old flame that Bhalu soon gets involved with could have the reader wondering somewhat about male mid-life crises and fantasy figures. It didn’t worry me, though, since the rest is so terrific. Bhalu’s life with his horsy English wife in chilly Sussex is beautifully drawn and how excellent to encounter fictional characters who are in their late 40s or 50s and nonetheless portrayed as desirable and attractive. As a bonus, the murder mystery which forms the framework of the book turns out to be a true story, a cause celebre of 1950s Bombay.

Gripping, absorbing, and funny.

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