BOOK REVIEW- Scarred Earth by Bhaswar Mukherjee

 

BOOK REVIEW

 

Scarred Earth

 

A Novel

Bhaswar Mukherjee

     (Petals Publishers, Ludhiana, First Edition, August 2023, 273

Pages Rs.350/-)

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     Scarred Earth is the third work of Bhaswar Mukherjee who earlier wrote an anthology of short stories, It happens and a non-fiction work on the life of Abdul Karim Telgi, The Counterfeiter. I have been following his interviews ever since I fell for his short stories. He described his methodology as ‘research, conflict &  a sledge-hammer ending’. It is the ending which had indelible impact on the mind of the reader so I fairly knew what to expect from his latest contemporary fiction.

   Writing a review of this book is as good as climbing Mount Everest for me because his writing has already been appreciated by renowned authors like ‘Amitav Ghosh, Ashwin Sanghi, etc.  However, the story made such an impression on mind that it could ill afford to refrain from writing a review.

     The story has been divided spatially- Baguran, Kolkata and Siliguri. Baguran is a place where an ethnic riot and its attendant evils take place, plotted by vested interests, who, for a change, also perish in the riot. This is the part which took the longest time for me to read because the  sinister intentions of the villains was too much to handle at one go.

     Kolkata also has a share of its woe but not so heart-wrenching as in Baguran. In Kolkata, the reader finds the human side of a lot of people- an altruistic son who walks out of his mansion to chase his dream of serving lesser privileged people, a bachelor with meagre resources who takes care of orphaned children, academicians who make a pitch to bend their rules for a brilliant boy to get admitted into a prestigious institution and so on. Many of the characters in Kolkata share the thread of a cruel and unforgiving past which has scarred them for ever.  It comes back once more to open the proverbial ‘Pandora’s  Box’ and injures the good humans badly. In Siliguri, the reader hopes that the wounds are healed and one of the protagonists moves on happily ahead in life but there is a character from the first village who comes back and causes a ripple in the placid waters of protagonist’s life.

        Not all evil characters get punished because some of them have both money and power. Some seemingly good people are as good (or as bad?) as evil as they don’t stand up against evil. The novel ends with hope but I would have been happier had all the villains been meted out with poetic justice.

    Some part of the novel reminds me of the author’s story, ‘To have loved and lost again.’ Some other part reminds me of my story ‘Kattilantammayi’ (Sharp Girl).

     All the characters are so real that one wonders whether it is a piece of fiction or the account of a secret closely held to the chest. It is difficult for the reader not to identify with all the characters of the novel which come alive right before her.

     To conclude, it is a wonderful book to read but one has to strengthen the heart before reading hence it would take a long time to complete the book, which is not advisable.

 

  My rating 4.5 *.

  Blurb : Must read