India News | 'The Patient in Bed Number 12': Raj Kamal Jha Gives Snapshot of Today's India in New Novel
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. A hate story gone viral or a daughter risking it all to follow her head and heart, stories in award-winning novelist Raj Kamal Jha's latest novel links fragile strands of individual lives into a tapestry of hope and heartbreak.
New Delhi, Dec 4 (PTI) A hate story gone viral or a daughter risking it all to follow her head and heart, stories in award-winning novelist Raj Kamal Jha's latest novel links fragile strands of individual lives into a tapestry of hope and heartbreak.
"The Patient in Bed Number 12", published by Penguin Random House India (PRHI), is touted to be a searing investigation of the pulse of today's India: "a billion-plus young people, restless and ambitious, trying to shed the burdens of their past".
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"The new book is about the stories that happen to us in places hard to get to, stuff we don't usually talk or tweet or post about -- what happens in moments and margins, and yet has a huge impact in shaping the way we are," said Jha, who has won the 'Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize' for his novel "The City and The Sea" in 2020.
Framed as a confession from parent to child and child to parent, the new novel in its profoundly moving exchange would see "secrets long buried tumble out, mysterious and dreamlike".
"A grieving mother finds solace in a newspaper photograph; a ghost comes to life in an abandoned fridge; children fill empty jars with the night's darkness; a young couple plan how to seek permission for their love; and three men with a phone camera turn a family's world upside down," read the description of the book.
According to the publishers, "The Patient in Bed Number 12" is an "unmissable and immersive portrait" of the human condition.
"Jha's compelling narrative delves into the poignant reality of contemporary India, where a viral hate video looms large, threatening to shatter society's very fabric. The interwoven lives of father and daughter, combined with Jha's mesmerizing storytelling, take readers on an emotional journey of staggering intensity," they added.
The book, priced at Rs 599, is currently available for purchase across online and offline stores.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)