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Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-57131-062-1
Pages: 320
Publish Date: Dec, 2007
Genre: Fiction
The Song of Kahunsha
BY Anosh Irani
It is 1993 and Bombay is threatened by terrorism and sectarian strife. Ten-year-old Chamdi has rarely ventured outside his orphanage, and entertains an idyllic fantasy of what the city is like beyond its garden walls—a paradise he calls Kahunsha, “the city of no sadness.” But when he runs away to search for his long-lost father, he finds himself thrust into the chaos of the streets, alone, possessing only the cloth he was left in as a baby. There Chamdi meets Sumdi and Guddi, brother and sister who beg in order to provide for their sick mother, and the three become fast friends.
A startling, moving novel about abandonment, poverty, and violence, as well as loyalty, love, and hope, as seen through the eyes of a young homeless boy.
Fueled by desire to find his father and the dream of his Kahunsha, Chamdi struggles for survival on Bombay’s brutal streets. But when he is caught up in the beginnings of the savage violence that will soon engulf the city, his dreams confront reality.
Wonderfully rich in the sights and sounds of Bombay, The Song of Kahunsha is a poignant story of hopes and dreams, and of the fragility of childhood innocence.
"With understated skill, Anosh Irani tells such a darkly enchanting story of the abandoned children of Bombay that I felt swept away by their fate and entangled in the world's too believable cruelty toward the innocent. Irani's shocking tale unfolds with a macabre and terrifying beauty that is both heartbreaking and compelling."
—Wayson Choy, author of All That Matters"A gripping and compassionate novel. . . . [It] calls to mind Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance."
—Winnipeg Free Press"Beautiful. . . . [It] vindicates the fragile but triumphant scope of childhood imagination with touching grace."
—The Globe and Mail
