“Impressively lucid and searching… In his clarity, sympathy and impeccably sculpted prose, Kapur often summons the spirit of V. S. Naipaul.” —Pico Iyer, Time magazine Read full article
“There are many virtues of Akash Kapur’s beautifully sketched portrait of modern India. The book reads like a novel. Kapur’s skill is to get people talking and to weave their stories into a necessarily messy debate about India’s future.” — The Financial Times
“[R]eadable, acutely observed and crammed with well-drawn characters… Mr Kapur offers a corrective to a simplistic “new, happy narrative” of a rising India. That is welcome and he does it well.” —The Economist
“Kapur…is an excellent ambassador to explain the dynamic of change in India, what the nation is becoming. Any reader who would like to understand the country better would do well to give him a read.” — The Daily Beast (a “Nonfiction Must Read”)
“A fascinating look at the transformation of India, with broader lessons on the upside and downside of progress.” —Booklist (starred review)
“A remarkably absorbing account of an India in transition–full of challenges and contradictions, but also of expectations, hope, and ultimately optimism.”
—Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate, author of Development as Freedom
“A wonderful writer: a courageously clear-eyed observer, an astute listener, a masterful portraitist, and a gripping story teller.”
—Philip Gourevitch, author of We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families
“Marvelous… Sharp-eyed, insightful, skillfully-sketched and beautifully written, India Becoming is the remarkable debut of a distinctive new talent.”
—William Dalrymple, author of Nine Lives
Nice essay on India Becoming in Der Spiegel. The author of the piece, Hasnain Kazim, is the South Asia correspondent for Der Spiegel, and a thought-provoking writer. I highly recommend some of his work. See, for example, this piece on immigration in Germany.
For non-German readers (and that includes me), you can translate the article on India Becoming by opening it in a Chrome browser window and using Google Translate.
I had a very nice chat with Phillip Adams on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Late Night Live. I’d never heard the show before, but really enjoyed his laid-back conversational style. Wish I could have been in studio for the call, but it was done by phone from Pondicherry.
India Becoming was featured on a segment of Weekend All Things Considered recently. Nice to talk to Guy Raz after hearing him so many times.
The Daily Beast selects India Becoming as a “Nonfiction Must Read.” A nice review–although I confess to being a bit shocked that I’m referred to as a “veteran journalist.”
I’m posting this late, but the Wall Street Journal ran a Q&A with me about India Becoming. I just realized that I used the word “intensity” three times in the last two answers.
I had a great time talking to Diane Rehm about India Becoming and my life in South India. It was an honor to be on her radio show. You can listen to a recording here.
The New Republic reviews India Becoming. A thoughtful essay by Alexandra Sage Mehta on what she calls “the reverse commute.” Look forward to reading her book.
On March 15th, I discussed my new book—and its many themes–with Leonard Lopate on the Leonard Lopate show, in NYC. Listen by clicking here.
David Pilling of The Financial Times has written a very nice–and thoughtful–review of India Becoming.
“There are many virtues of Akash Kapur’s beautifully sketched portrait of modern India,” he writes. “The greatest of them is ambivalence. Kapur is ambivalent about the trade-offs between the disappearing certainties of India’s countryside and the roller-coaster possibilities of its cities. He is ambivalent about changes that have released people from social bondage but have uncorked thuggery, greed and vacuous consumerism. He is ambivalent about whether to be swept up by India’s startling growth or fearful of the searing inequalities and environmental degradation on which it appears to be based.
He concludes: “The novelistic approach allows for these changes of mood and perspective. Kapur’s skill is to get people talking and to weave their stories into a necessarily messy debate about India’s future. There is loss as well as anticipation. People are beggared and despoiled even as others claw out of the mud.
“In the final pages Kapur is partially reconciled to India’s duality, to the “delicate dance between destruction and creativity”. India’s becoming is, in the end, both tragic and uplifting.”
The Economist has a nice review of India Becoming in this week’s issue. ”Mr Kapur wrote some excellent ‘letters’ from India for the New York Times,” the review says. “His new book is similarly readable, acutely observed and crammed with well-drawn characters.” The review talks about India’s ongoing debate over the price of progress. “That debate is healthy,” the review says. “Mr Kapur’s enjoyable book is a welcome addition to it.”
There is also a nice podcast about the book (and two other excellent recent books on India) accompanying the review.
My book, India Becoming, was published on March 15th, 2012. Read an excerpt in The New Yorker. Read another excerpt in The Atlantic Online. Or read an article about the book in Time magazine
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