HALF-BLOOD

<p>Description</p><p>'You see Moonie I did a terrible thing for which I had to leave Bombay. I don't want to</p><p>burden you in this letter with the details of my deed-or my life. It's a long story and</p><p>I'm not a man of words.'</p><p>It is 2009 more than a decade after Maya read this intriguing letter addressed</p><p>to her. The awkward adopted child of an odd Bengali couple she's now a</p><p>34-year-old journalist in an existential mess that she alleviates by smoking pot</p><p>and going on long walks with her latest boyfriend. But in order to find the</p><p>meaning she craves Maya must confront her past and open a box of objects</p><p>she inherited. When she finally does she's led on a startling sparkling journey</p><p>of discovery.</p><p>At the centre of this journey is Burjor Elavia a 'fifty-fifty' an 'Adhkachru'-</p><p>the illegitimate child of a Parsi man and a tribal woman-born in a</p><p>nondescript village in Gujarat. In 1952 not yet eighteen he made his way</p><p>to Bombay where he lived a colourful life-promiscuous reckless involved</p><p>in a string of shady businesses but also compassionate and a charmer. His</p><p>greatest achievement was an audacious venture for fifty-fifty Parsis like</p><p>himself many of them strugglers some of them on the make and all of them</p><p>eccentric. In their tangled mixed-up funny life stories Maya tries to find her</p><p>beginnings-and maybe her future.</p><p>Set in the teeming varied universe that is Bombay Half-Blood is an</p><p>entertaining full-blooded novel about dysfunctional families plucky</p><p>survivors chancers mavericks and good-hearted rogues. A celebration of</p><p>vitality impurity and other true virtues of life it is a marvellous debut.</p><p><br></p>