A Speck of Coal Dust

'Remarkably accomplished ... unforgettable' - AMIT CHAUDHURI 'Finely-paced [and] richly observant' - ADIL JUSSAWALLA'Deeply personal and profoundly historical' - SAIKAT MAJUMDAR 'Spectacular' - KHUSHWANT SINGHWINNER OF A BETTY TRASK AWARD 1995First published in 1996 as In the Light of the Black Sun and long unavailable Rohit Manchanda's debut novel A Speck of Coal Dust is one of the finest coming-of-age narratives in Indian-English writing and a forgotten classic.Set in the coal-mining regions of eastern India this exquisitely crafted work follows Vipul the eleven-year-old son of a mine manager as he awakens to the mysteries of life in a backwater town marooned in time. He finds in his environs much to marvel at to dread to love and to cherish while a motley cast of characters - oddball friends capricious teachers a comics-loving swami missionaries and tinpot rogues - floats into and out of his life. Here Vipul's eyes are opened to the smallness and at once the grandeur of the arena he inhabits and its place in the larger world even as he learns his early lessons of cruelty and kindness the glories and severities of nature and sensual stirrings laced with guilt...