Between the Assassinations

BETWEEN THE ASSASSINATIONS, Aravind Adiga's follow-up to his phenomenal bestseller (and Booker Prize-winning) WHITE TIGER, was actually written before that breakthrough novel and works well as a prequel. Here, Adiga memorably recreates the atmosphere of India's recent past, specifically the period between the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984 and the killing of her son Rajiv in 1991.Using the innovative structure of a city tour guide, the book directs us to different areas of Kittur, a "village" (of some 200,000 people) near the west coast of India, presenting interconnected short stories from various locales. The characters are wildly different in terms of religion and caste, allowing Adiga to flex his vivid imagination as he demonstrates the extraordinary richness and complex texture of everyday life amidst the diverse Indian masses. Readers encounter a coolie who is gradually disintegrating, as his work forces him to burn more calories than he consumes; an illiterate Muslim boy who falls under the spell of a generous terrorist; a chauffeur who decides to risk his comfortable position by confessing certain feelings to his employer; and a wealthy Marxist who falls in love with the only woman in the village whom his money prevents him from having. Adiga's place among the most creative and essential fiction writers on the planet is cemented with this exceptional second work.