The Blue Bedspread - (Harvest Book) by Raj Kamal Jha (Paperback)

About the Book

A man claims his dead sister's baby on a steamy night in Calcutta and spends a tortured evening penning stories for her, telling of his own anguished childhood. Through these stories he hopes to find his place in the world, and create a better one for the orphaned infant. Jha's poetic prose echoes the loneliness of the human condition.

Book Synopsis

In the middle of a steamy Calcutta night the phone rings. An unnamed man in a city of millions answers to a voice telling him that his long-lost sister is dead. He must go to the hospital to identify the body and claim his sister's orphaned newborn daughter until she can be adopted the next day.

During the long hot night, the baby sleeps on a bedspread that used to be indigo blue, but has faded to almost white. As the child lies where the man and his sister used to sleep as children, he quietly writes stories for her, telling of his own childhood full of intensity, anguish, and poetry. He doesn't know his place in the world, but with the help of these stories, the baby someday might.

Raj Kamal Jha's ethereal, poetic prose echoes the loneliness of the human condition.

Review Quotes

""The Blue Bedspread "can be read easily in one sitting. But its images and emotions will linger long after the surprise ending."-USA Today
"A brilliant beginning for a writer whose voice already shows a maturity well beyond his years."-The New York Times


"The quiet tone of this debut novel . . . packs a deceptive punch, unflinchingly delineating the familial turbulence raging just below the veneer of daily life."-Entertainment Weekly


PRAISE FOR "THE BLUE BEDSPREAD"
"Jha is a remarkable writer, both in excess and restraint."-The Sunday Times (London)


""The Blue Bedspread can be read easily in one sitting. But its images and emotions will linger long after the surprise ending."-USA Today
"A brilliant beginning for a writer whose voice already shows a maturity well beyond his years."-The New York Times