No God in Sight - Tapa dura

..."a vivid composite of contemporary life in Mumbai...[an] accomplished debut."
-- "The Sunday Express"
"Tyrewala doesn't use many words. But the few he picks pack a punch."
-- "The Hindu
"
..."great stuff by any standards...This literary debut is bound to set Tyrewala rolling towards bigger destinations."
-- "Indian Express
"
..."very clever...It's writing at the speed of light. It works well. It reads easily. It's confident. It's efficient...this is that rarity, a readable book that will grab you by the neck and keep you going."
-- "The Hindustan Times"

" Imaginative. . . . [A] captivating whirlwind tour of the cities and people he knows best."
-- "San Francisco Chronicle"
" [Tyrewala' s] slim, well-crafted book coolly handles a difficult subject: Muslim love and longing in Hindu Mumbai. . . . His raw, gritty vignettes are a necessary antidote to images that are conveyed by works like Mehta' s Maximum City: Mumbai as a vital, pulsating place with new cliche s, which has itself become globalizing, nuclear-powered India' s brand new shibboleth."
-- "The Brooklyn Rail"

"Imaginative. . . . [A] captivating whirlwind tour of the cities and people he knows best."
--"San Francisco Chronicle"
"[Tyrewala's] slim, well-crafted book coolly handles a difficult subject: Muslim love and longing in Hindu Mumbai. . . . His raw, gritty vignettes are a necessary antidote to images that are conveyed by works like Mehta's Maximum City: Mumbai as a vital, pulsating place with new cliches, which has itself become globalizing, nuclear-powered India's brand new shibboleth."
--"The Brooklyn Rail"

"This is a sparkling debut, a first novel of confidence, verve and high talent, written with a wit, light touch and deep humanity which brings its world to vivid, memorable life." Salman Rushdie, author of Midnight s Children and Satanic Verses
In this imaginative first novel, Altaf Tyrewala . . . takes a risky, sometimes entertaining . . . approach to portraying contemporary life in India. . . . Like that old cliche of life flowing like a river with its swirling currents, the stories here eddy around one another, loosely linked. . . . Tyrewala, who has worked as a cashier, a telemarketer, a clerk, and instructional writer, uses his wide-ranging experiences and dark wit to prevent the stories from becoming utterly bleak. . . . A gritty, often unappealing, occasionally captivating whirlwind tour of the cities and people he knows best. San Francisco Chronicle
[Tyrewala s] slim, well-crafted book coolly handles a difficult subject: Muslim love and longing in Hindu Mumbai. . . . He presents a comprehensive range of Muslim voices that argue with their faith and Mumbai, their benefactor-tormentor. . . . His raw, gritty vignettes are a necessary antidote to images that are conveyed by works like Mehta s Maximum City: Mumbai as a vital, pulsating place with new cliches, which has itself become globalizing, nuclear-powered India s brand new shibboleth. the book s engaging multi-faceted exploration of religious identity provides nuanced insight into Indian Islam, its internecine struggles, and its contribution to the country s million mutinies. The Brooklyn Rail
Tyrewala serves up a feast of humanity -- the lust, love, betrayal, joy, and hatred of their lives set against the bustling backdrop of Bombay and the culture of India. ForeWord Magazine
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Fast paced and innovative, No God in Sight captures the seething multiplicity of Bombay through the first person accounts of an abortionist, a convert, a pregnant refugee, a gangster in hiding, a butcher, and an apathetic CEO, among others.
As the reader is hurtled from monologue to short story to anecdote, disparate lives collide in tantalizing ways. A family flees religious persecution in their village to take refuge in an urban slum; women walk the tightrope of free will and dormant violence; a father and son grant each other the relief of estrangement; and young men and women struggle to comprehend the consequences of sexual attraction.
Insightful, ironic, and scathingly honest, No God in Sight is a brilliant debut by a talented young writer."