A Life Apart

A life apart tells two stories. Ritwik, twenty-two and orphaned, escapes from a devastating childhood of abuse in calcutta to what he considers to be a new world, full of possibilities, in england, where he has a chance to start all over again. But his past, especially the all-consuming relationship with his mother, is a minefield: will ritwik find the salvation he is looking for?set in India, england and in raj bengal, this award-winning first novel is about dislocation and alienation, outsiders and losers, the tenuous and unconscious intersections of lives and histories, and the consolations of storytelling. unsentimental yet full of compassion, and written with unrelenting honesty, this scalding debut marks a new turning point in writing from India. About the Author Neel mukherjee was born in calcutta. his first novel, a life apart (2010), won the vodafone-crossword award in india, the writer's guild of great britain award for best fiction and was shortlisted for the inaugural dsc prize for south asian literature. the lives of others has been shortlisted for the man booker prize 2014. he lives in london.