Djinn” in this novel are described as spirits who can possess animals. There are good djinns as well as evil. Pari, the third member of the detective trio, later in the novel even suggests that they start up a tv show called, “Djinn Patrol”. Non un thriller ma un romanzo contemporaneo solido nella sua ambientazione con il grande pregio di portare in primo piano varie situazione drammatiche e spesso ignorate.

Who Cares About One Missing Child in an Indian Slum? Another Who Cares About One Missing Child in an Indian Slum? Another

Yes, leave, that will be very easy for you to do” Chachi says. “We’re the ones who have to be here today and tomorrow and the day after that. This is our life you’re talking about as if it’s just some story. Do you even understand that?” I’m also curious as to who this book is intended for. The language is far too mature for children or young adults to read but the child-like writing, which is consistent with protagonist, doesn’t seem to be catering to the adult reader either. I found that quite confusing. Djinn Patrol ... transcends its burdens by being exceptionally well-written, thoughtfully structured and, above all, sensitive to the precise individuality and mental acuity of its characters. Its world is also beautifully described, from the alleys of Bhoot Bazaar to the big city's main railway station … Anappara doesn't pull punches when it comes to illustrating our constant complicity in perpetuating dehumanising poverty.” —Sonal Shah, India Today

Reader Reviews

Il lavoro minorile, l’istruzione solo per pochi, i conflitti religiosi e le violenze collettive, la corruzione, il divario sociale e la questione ambientale: The arrival of a literary supernova… Warning: if you begin in the morning, don’t expect to get anything done for the rest of the day’ Xenophobic violence, political power plays and hate perpetrators run amok while it is the common man who still has to work, worry about how to feed his family and survive amidst this violence. Deepa Anappara’s Djinn Patrol On The Purple Line highlights this ugly face of India – one where we still haven’t learnt to embrace the true meaning of secularism. A dazzling journey into the heart of India and its most vulnerable citizens - its impoverished and disenfranchised children. A novel at once brimming with the wonder of childhood innocence, and constrained by the heartache of living amidst injustice and prejudice. Deepa Anappara shows us a modern, dangerously divided India that has long needed to be seen.” —Nazanine Hozar, author of Aria This particular aspect of the story is painfully true to life—the religious divisions in India have been increasing over the last few decades. The text presents these matters as they would happen in the real world and it makes for disturbing, albeit realistic, reading.

Djinn Patrol’ Blurring The Line Between Fiction And Reality In ‘Djinn Patrol’

The mystery and detection part of this book was just ok for me. What I really liked about the book were the incredible details about life in a basti (poor area) of India. The author doesn’t bother to translate for non Indians so it’s like a disorienting immersion in the country - including the homes, jobs, food, schools, pay toilets and smog. For example: “Quarter runs a gang that beats up teachers and rents out fake parents to students when they get into trouble and the headmaster insists on meeting their ma-papas.”, “...he stops at a theka in Bhoot Bazaar to drink a quarter-peg of daru, which is how he got the name Quarter.” and “His nose learned to catch the weakest of smells from hours before – marigold garlands, sliced papayas served with a pinch of chaat powder on top, puris fried in oil — to guide his steps to the right or left in dark corners.” In an unnamed city in India, a child disappears. Local police are called, but they don’t care. The child is from a basti, a shantytown on the outskirts of the city towered over by marble-floored ‘Hi-fi’ condos where people who do matter live. Nine-year-old protagonist Jai takes inspiration from his favourite reality-TV programme, Police Patrol, and from fictional sleuth Byomkesh Bakshi, forming a ‘detectiving team’ and recruiting his friends Pari and Faiz to find their missing neighbour. While they hunt for clues, more children vanish. Will Jai and his two friends manage to find any of the missing youngsters or any evidence of what happened to them? Who is committing these atrocious crimes? What is the motivation? Will his sister be found in time? What will be the aftermath for their families and neighbours? And through Jai’s voice, sometimes cheeky and naïve, other times confused and fearful we get a colourful picture of life in the vasti as well as non-polemical account of some of the wider forces at play around it:

A partial of her novel won the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize, the Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award, and the Bridport/Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award for a First Novel. It is now being translated into 17 languages. Deepa’s short fiction has won the Dastaan Award, the Asian Writer Short Story Prize, the second prize in the Bristol Short Story awards, the third prize in the Asham awards, and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, where she is currently studying for a Creative-Critical Writing PhD on a CHASE doctoral fellowship.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line - Wikipedia

What really makes the book though is the closing section – where the book takes a much darker twist. Firstly with the disappearances coming even closer to home for Jai and with secondly a likely (although still open ended) resolution of the terrible truth behind the disappearances. I think the themes embedded in this story are significantly valuable. However, the progression of the story was uniform. Overall, I liked the story because of the important leitmotifs. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this copy. Opinions are my own. The choice of a child narrator, while notoriously hard to pull off convincingly, makes the novel a tour de force. Anappara inhabits the voice with disarming ease and swagger, she coins a vocabulary that’s not only idiosyncratic but also unapologetically Indian. Although the children she writes about are hardened by the vicissitudes of their grim existence, she reminds us, with a sly interjection every now and then, of their capacity to create happiness out of the smallest things, even out of thin air.” —Somak Ghoshal, Mint

BookBrowse Review

a debut novel that is teeming with life despite its deadly subject matter ... Anappara shifts skilfully between different narrative voices throughout her novel ... a masterful eye-opener to the casual cruelties of contemporary India.”— Sarah Gilmartin, The Irish Times It doesn’t help that the protagonist, Jai, is the least interesting character in the book. I realise he’s nine, but he comes across as selfish, narcissistic, and extremely unhelpful. His point of view is interesting, but I can’t help thinking that the book would have been elevated had it been told from Pari’s or Runu’s—Jai’s sister—point of view. sono vicini ma sembrano distanti, perché nel mezzo c’è la discarica e anche un muro alto di mattoni con sopra il filo spinato”. Anappara is currently working towards a doctorate in historical fiction at the University of East Anglia. [2] [10] Awards and recognition [ edit ]