Odysseus Abroad

Amit Chaudhuri

Hamish Hamilton

256 pages, Rs. 499

Ananda’s uncle, Rangamama, is an eccentric bachelor who has retired early and lives off his pension in a squalid bedsit in Belsize Park. His habits are angular—he rarely bathes, and devours paranormal stories—and his personality combative. Ananda, by contrast, is fragile, nervous and romantic. Uncle and nephew circle around their shared past, walk the streets of London, and find in each other an unspoken solace. A retelling of the story of Odysseus and Telemachus, this is a tender and wry novel about a young man and an old one, and about friendship, loneliness and love.