A Village Dies: Your Invitation to a Memorable Funeral

Back in the 1940s when Mumbai was still Bombay the twin urban villages of Kevni-Amboli were home to a lively Catholic community—predominantly East Indian but also Anglo-Indian Goan and Mangalorean. In this hugely entertaining novel set in that vanished world Ivan Arthur spins a delightful web of joint families priests sodality groups gossips friendly drunks vagrants simpletons lovers and maiden aunts. Among the many lovable and eccentric characters are Hanging Gardens a simple gravedigger who by a quirk of fate nurtures a millionaire mechanic; Blaise Misquitta a stickler for punctuality who has a grave dug in anticipation of his wife’s death; Tristao Dias Ribeiro a Portuguese official who builds a massive church because his wife’s illness has forced him out of the conjugal bed; Kirit the studious first-ranker who slits his wrist—and survives—because he cannot marry Miss Alice or kiss her on the lips; Peter a mysterious water-carrier who sings operatic arias and of course the endearing tomboy Kitty in whose memories the past and present merge.