She Will Build Him a City

March 2, 2015
Jha (Fireproof) constructs a surreal study of the longing and loneliness of three nameless characters in a world that shifts between menacing and romantic, comical and violent, demonic and endearing. Woman is confronted with her daughter's sudden return home; Man comes undone in a nightmarish descent into desire and violence; and Child, an abandoned baby boy, is adored by a TB-stricken nurse and sheltered by a contingent of animals and spirits. The return of Woman's daughter exposes secrets hidden after the death of Woman's husbandâand the daughter's heartbreaking grief and disastrous affair. "Whatever happened to me... whatever happens to us from now on doesn't matter to anyone except us," Woman says about her reunion with her daughter. Yet their reconciliation is linked by a cascade of unintended consequences to Child's uncertain future, which triggers the desires and dreams of everyone around him, and Man's erotic, murderous obsession with a "Balloon Girl." Jha's dense, evocative tales of urban India are mesmerizing and magical.

January 15, 2015
A study in contrasts, this novel uses magic to illuminate poverty, violence and loss.New City, India, contains multitudes. Journalist and novelist Jha (Fireproof, 2007, etc.) introduces the city through three main characters, Woman, Man and Child, whose disparate stories anchor the narrative as the tension between rich and poor plays out again and again. Man and his driver are stuck on the freeway as police use water cannons to disperse Old City protestors who haven't had water or electricity for days. A "quota" medical school student sees his beloved girlfriend protesting the presence of lower castes on campus. Readers first meet Woman as she recalls the past to her grown daughter, home after a long time away. Woman draws readers in with gorgeous language: "And, thus assured, you run away, leaving a hole in the air, shimmering, through which the afternoon leaks away and evening drips in, mixes, dissolves the scents you leave behind." On the next page, the tone turns to menace as we meet Man, a wealthy loner: "He is going to kill and he is going to die. That's all we know for now, let's see what happens in between." The third character, Child, is abandoned and officially named "Orphan" by a media-savvy orphanage administrator. Each character's story is driven forward by fear and mystery-the greatest mystery of all being how these stories and characters are connected. Ultimately, the character who links the three is named but never given much of a voice. This novel is populated by storytellers. One by one, they tell us that nothing, even magic (a 12-foot woman who mothers mothers or a dog who transports an orphan to safety), can erase the ugly highs and lows of life in modern India.

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December 15, 2014
A man, a woman, and a child. From these simple elements, New Delhi editor and novelist Jha spins a fantastical web of stories that peel back the layer of anonymity afforded by the crowded Indian city. The woman's adult daughter has come to stay with no explanation; the man has his mind set on murder; and the baby boy is abandoned at an orphanage. What follows is a disturbing look at the junction where desperate poverty rubs up against gleaming modernity. The spheres within the novel are rich with characters and stories. Jha's style suggests that of Gabriel Garc-a Mrquez, leaving us unsure of what is real and what is imagined, whether it's a 12-foot-tall giant or a talking dog. His impressionistic, energetic prose can trip over itself in the same way the myriad sights and sounds of an urban scene pile on top of one another. She Will Build Him a City is simultaneously thought-provoking and gut-wrenching, its overall atmosphere of despair leavened by a slight helping of hope.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)