Three Bargains: A Novel
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4.2 • 10 Ratings
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- $21.99
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
A tale of fathers and sons, the ties that bind, and the barriers of class that even love cannot break, Three Bargains is a stunning first novel, as potent, heart-stopping, and epic as Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner.
By the banks of the River Yamuna in northern India, where rice paddies of basmati merge into fields of sugarcane, twelve-year-old Madan lives with his impoverished family in the town of Gorapur. Madan's father works for Avtaar Singh, a powerful and controlling man who owns the largest factory in town and much of the land around it. Madan's sharp mind and hardened determination catch Avtaar Singh's attention. When Madan’s father's misdeeds jeopardize his sister's life, Madan strikes his first bargain with Avtaar Singh to save her. Drawn into Avtaar Singh's violent world, Madan becomes his son in every way but by blood. Suddenly it looks as if everything will change for Madan and his family until a forbidden love affair has brutal consequences and he is forced to leave behind all that is dear to him. On his journey toward redemption, Madan will have to bargain, once, twice, three times for his life and for the lives of those he loves.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Madan is 12 when Avtaar Singh, his protector, mentor, and replacement father, first offers this advice: "You must always have a purpose. Your opponent can be anyone, but to win, it's not who or what you're fighting against, as much as what you're fighting for." Guiding and grounding Madan for years to come, this message is made even more poignant when Avtaar Singh becomes his nemesis. Over the course of this stunning debut novel, which begins in 1983 in Northern India, Madan grows up, enduring his father's absence, his mother's indifference, and the sale of his younger sister, who is brutalized but eventually returned to their small town on the Yamuna River, thanks to Avtaar Singh's intercession. But when Madan follows his heart and betrays Avtaar Singh's trust, he barely escapes with his life, and makes a split-second decision he will come to regret. As the country around him swells with new money and possibility, Madan reinvents himself, arraying himself the wealth and shine of 21st-century global capitalism. But Madan's attempts to ignore his past cannot last. Malik's novel boasts masterful storytelling, with mesmerizing prose, heart-stopping action, and startling turns of events that feel both honest and astounding.
