PARALLEL LIVES

Parallel Lives examines the anatomy of a custodial death in the 1990s in a Madras that is becoming Chennai. The story of the investigation is interspersed with the story of the city through the eyes of the civil servant Hari. A parallel narrative is woven in from the perspective of a beggar on a pavement whose life stands testimony to the breakdown of the migrant dream. The outcome of the investigation and the identity of the beggar keep the reader guessing until the final reveal.