The Devourers By Indra Das
The Devourers By Indra Das - In this post you will get all the information about ‘The
Devourers’. The proper and easy explanation of the novel is written below, i
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Introduction
The Devourers By Indra Das - The
Devourers is a 2015 debut novel by Indian writer, artist, and editor Indra Das (aka
Indrapramit Das). It takes place in Kolkata, India, where Das grew up, and is considered South Asian speculative fiction and dark fantasy, incorporating aspects of historical fiction, fantasy, and horror. It was originally published by Penguin India in 2015, followed by release in North America by Ballantine Del Rey of Penguin Random
House in July 2016.
The Devourers By Indra Das - The novel
features shape-shifters,
more specifically werewolves, and explores the
concepts of love, cannibalism, and what it means to be human. It is told in a
multi-layered manner, alternating between different time periods and
perspectives. The author's writing has been compared to that of Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, China Miéville, and David Mitchell.
About the Author
The Devourers By Indra Das - Indrapramit
Das (also known as Indra Das) is an Indian science fiction, fantasy and
cross-genre writer, critic and editor from Kolkata. His fiction has appeared in several publications
including Clarkesworld, Asimov’s Science
Fiction, Strange Horizons, and Tor.com, and has been widely anthologized in collections
including Gardner Dozois' The
Year's Best Science Fiction.
His debut novel The Devourers (Penguin Books India,
2015; Del Rey, 2016) won
the 29th Annual Lambda Award in LGBT SF/F/Horror category. The Lambda Award celebrates excellence in LGBT
literature. The Devourers was shortlisted for 2016 Crawford Award, and included in the 2015 Locus Recommended Reading
List. It was also nominated for the Shakti Bhatt
First Book Prize and the Tata Live! Literature First Book Award
in India.
The Devourers By Indra Das - Das is
an Octavia E. Butler Scholar
and a graduate of the 2012 Clarion West Writers Workshop. He completed an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
·
He is a former consulting
editor of speculative fiction for
Indian publisher Juggernaut Books.
Summary
The Devourers By Indra Das - The story,
which takes place primarily in Kolkata, is set during the reign of the Mughal Empire in the seventeenth
century and extends to modern India. The main character, Alok Mukherjee, is a college
professor and historian who happens upon a stranger that tells him a story
about shape-shifters that devour human souls in order to survive. The stranger
claims that the tale he
tells it true, and although Alok is skeptical, he is intrigued and
insists on finishing the story. Alok is then enlisted to translate and
transcribe a collection of notebooks and texts documented on human skin,
through which the rest of the story is told.
·
The line between
what it is to be human and what it is to be a monster is frequently blurred in
Das' compelling debut novel.
The Devourers By Indra Das - In
modern-day India, a lonely history professor named Alok is drawn into an
unbelievable story of the past by a charismatic young man who introduces
himself as “half werewolf.” His mysterious new acquaintance hires him to
transcribe the century-spanning saga of an immortal shape-shifter, Fenrir, whose rape of a prostitute
in 17th-century India triggers a web of painful consequences for them
both. Fenrir is fascinated by humans, in part because they are taboo as
anything but prey for his species—creatures who are the root of all mankind's
myths and nightmares and who feed off mortals, both literally and
metaphorically (the frequent descriptions of violent consumption are rendered
in loving, grotesque detail).
The Devourers By Indra Das - Fenrir's
story becomes Cyrah's—his victim's—as she trails him on her own hunt for a
reckoning. Interwoven
through the quests for legacy and vengeance are Alok's present-day
encounters with the man he refers to as "the stranger" and Alok's own
alternating fascination and discomfiture with both the story he is
reconstructing and its messenger. History catches up with the present as the
stranger's identity is revealed (somewhat predictably), and he and Alok have
their own reckoning and consumption. At its best, Das' narrative is lush,
imaginative, and hypnotic, bringing to life scenes of savagery and moments of
wonder. At its worst, it treads toward an overwrought fascination with its own
gore and “the stinking dark of fermented history.” Readers are left to draw
their own moral conclusions as to where right and wrong lie amid the blood.
·
Not for the
squeamish, Das' debut is an ambitious, unsettling trip into our own capacity
for violence.
Reception
The Devourers By Indra Das - The
Devourers was shortlisted for the 2015 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize, the
2015 TATA Live! Literature First Book Award, and the 2016 International
Association for the Fantastic in the Arts William L.
Crawford Fantasy Award. It was also listed as a 2015
selection for Locus Recommended Reading.
The Devourers By Indra Das - "Not
for the squeamish, Das' debut is an ambitious, unsettling trip into our own
capacity for violence," according to Kirkus Reviews. Author
of The Obelisk Gate, N. K. Jemisin, concluded in her review of the book in The New York Times,
”Readers will savor every bite."
The Devourers By Indra Das - In a
starred review, Publishers
Weekly praised Das' debut novel as
"brutal, intoxicating, and gorgeously visceral." Podcast host and writer for Tor.com Mahvesh Murad described The Devourers similarly and expanded
on the sentiment: "It is violent and vicious and deeply unsettling for a
number of reasons. But it is also showcases Das’ incredible prowess with
language and rhythm, and his ability to weave folklore and ancient legend with
modern day loneliness."
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