The Immortals - by Amit Chaudhuri (Paperback)

About the Book

"In 1980s Bombay, a highly regarded voice teacher and his affluent sixteen-year-old student enter into a relationship that will have unexpected and lasting consequences in their lives, and the lives of their families. With exquisitely sensuous detail, quiet humor, and unsentimental poignancy, Amit Chaudhuri paints a luminous portrait of the spiritual and emotional force behind a revered Indian tradition; of two fundamentally different but intricately intertwined families; and of a society choosing between the old and the new"--

Book Synopsis

Two families in 1980s Bombay--one making ends meet in the old world of Indian classical music, the other thriving in a booming new world of corporate luxury--intersect in this lyrical novel of art and commerce, capturing a city (and country) in a state of change.

Bombay in the 1980s: Shyam Lal is a highly regarded voice teacher, trained in the classical idiom but happily teaching more popular songs to well-to-do women, whose modern way of life he covets. Sixteen-year-old Nirmalya Sengupta is the rebellious scion of an affluent family who wants only to study Indian classical music. With a little push from her mother, Shyam agrees to accept Nirmalya as his student, entering into a relationship that will have unexpected and lasting consequences.

With quiet humor and unsentimental poignancy, The Immortals is a luminous portrait of the spiritual and emotional force of a revered Indian tradition, of two fundamentally different but intricately intertwined families, and of a society choosing between the old and the new.

About the Author

Amit Chaudhuri is a novelist, essayist, poet, and musician. He is a professor of creative writing and the director of the Centre for the Creative and the Critical at Ashoka University. His most recent book is Sweet Shop: New and Selected Poems, 1985-2023, published by NYRB Poets.

Pankaj Mishra's books include Age of Anger: A History of the Present, From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia and two novels, the more recent of which is Run and Hide.