Fishhead - by Ignatius Valentine Aloysius (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Amidst the teeming tenements of 1970s Bombay (Mumbai), a hungry teenage boy struggles through life in a poverty-stricken family ruled by a domineering alcoholic father, when suddenly he faces another challenge: the affections of an upper middle-class girl. In this exploration of poverty and pleasure, patriarchy and tragedy, Fishhead's titular narrator must search for ways to bridge the gap between two seemingly irreconcilable worlds: the life he longs to live, and the one chosen for him by Destiny.

Review Quotes

"Destiny is the storyteller here, and while destiny can seem synonymous with constraint, the characters in this novel are so alive, the story of these star-crossed lovers so compelling, that nothing feels inevitable in these pages. Destiny knows how the story ends, but also how to make it new. Fishhead: Republic of Want is a deeply thoughtful, ambitious, and lyrical debut from a writer to watch." - Naeem Murr, author of The Boy, The Genius of the Sea, and The Perfect Man, winner of The Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the Best Book of Europe/South Asia (2007), and long-listed for the Man Booker Prize.

"This ambitious and lyrical coming-of-age novel features an engrossing metafictional framework. Its compelling focal character is a young Indian man who grows up in impoverished circumstances but manages to transcend his humble origins, and along the way, he falls in love for the first time and encounters many people and situations that challenge his perceptions of himself and the wider world. This is a remarkably insightful, deeply imagined and humane novel." - Christine Sneed, award-winning author of Little Known Facts, The Virginity of Famous Men, and Paris, He Said.

"Ignatius Valentine Aloysius has written a book of intense hungers-for food, livelihood, love, dignity, work, and honorable and fulfilling purpose in life. Panoramic in scope, somewhat metafictional in stance, Fishhead: Republic of Want is a remarkable and deeply engrossing novel. Another great tale of India, this novel also promises a sequel." - Reginald Gibbons, author of An Orchard in the Street, Last Lake, and Slow Train Overhead: Chicago Poems and Stories.

"In Fishhead, Ignatius Valentine Aloysius has created a great tidal wave of language, which washes from the far reaches of Mumbai to the suburbs of Chicago. This work of metafiction looks not just at the brutal world of Fishhead's youth, but at the work that is put into creating an identity, a self, and the effort required to hold it together. Eschewing straight narration, it arrives at something else: a novel that reflects on its own making. At the end, the author seems to be saying: There is no possibility for home-except for language, which will house us when all else fails." - Amin Ahmad, author of The Caretaker and The Last Taxi Ride.

"This vivid coming of age story explores Fishhead's struggle to find direction and meaning in the midst of desperate poverty in Bombay. A remarkable examination of the insidious effects of hunger on the body, mind, and heart. Engaging storytelling reveals a young man's quest to discover his identity in spite of incredible odds." - Laurie Lawlor, Author of Super Women: Six Scientists Who Changed the World