History's Angel

Anjum Hasan

A darkly funny, moving novel about life in contemporary Delhi by 'one of the finest Indian writers alive'

Alif is a middle-aged history teacher living in contemporary Delhi. Though his life's passion is the history he teaches, it's the present that presses down on him: his wife is set on a bigger house and a better car while trying to ace her MBA exams; his teenage son wants to quit school to get rich; his supercilious colleagues are suspicious of a Muslim teaching India's history; and his old friend Ganesh has just reconnected with a childhood sweetheart with whom Alif was always rather enamored himself.

And then the unthinkable happens. While Alif is leading a school field trip, a Hindu student goads him about being Muslim, and in a fit of anger, Alif twists his ear. Suddenly out of a job, Alif finds his life rapidly descending into chaos. Meanwhile, his home city, too, darkens under the spreading shadow of violence.

Anjum Hasan is the author of three novels and two story collections, which have been shortlisted for the Indian Academy of Letters Prize, the Hindu Best Fiction Award, and longlisted for the Man Asia Literary Prize and DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Her fiction and essays have appeared in Granta, ParisReviewand the Los AngelesReviewofBooks.