The Village
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £2.99
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
The Village by Nikita Lalwani is a disturbing and utterly gripping modern morality tale set in contemporary India.
On a winter morning Ray Bhullar arrives at the gates of an Indian village. She is here to make a film. But this will be no ordinary tale about India - for this is no ordinary village. It is an open prison, inhabited by murderers. An apparent innocent among the guilty, Ray tries hard to be accepted. But the longer she and the rest of the crew stay, the more the need for drama increases. Soon the fragile peace of the village will be shattered and, despite Ray's seemingly good intentions, the motives of the visitors and the lives of the inhabitants will be terrifyingly, brutally exposed.
Praise for The Village:
'A thoughtful novel that envelops us in the oppression and beauty of the rural prison . . . each voice is distinct, believable and stubborn in its refusal to be easily known. Touchingly evocative' Financial Times
'Thoughtful, beautifully written. A candid exploration of journalistic ethics' Observer
'A masterclass. The inmates' stories evoke larger questions about justice and privacy, power and powerlessness' Guardian
Nikita Lalwani was born in Rajasthan and raised in Cardiff. Her first novel Gifted was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and won the Desmond Elliott Prize. She lives in London.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Lalwani's solid but slight novel, BBC filmmaker Ray Bhullar travels to India to make a documentary about Ashwer, an experimental penal community of men and women, all convicted murders, many of whom live with their families and travel without guards to jobs in nearby towns. A "prison with no perimeter," Ashwer is built on the idea that "trust begets trust." As Ray, her camerawoman Serena, and the film's on-camera presenter, Nathan, settle into Ashwer, they must gain the trust of the inmate-residents and find the stories that will lend their film drama. They must also navigate the professional and romantic tensions that flare up among the crew. Ray is a well-constructed character, but insufferably earnest; Lalwani is on surer ground with the less deep but more real characters of Nathan, Serena, and the glib warden, Sujay Sanghvi. It's an interesting glimpse at an unusual world, an exploration of the notions of guilt and atonement, and Lalwani shines in showing how documentarians manufacture drama. Still, the problems of three affluent filmmakers cannot compete with the stories of some of Ashwer's inmates (like the woman in an arranged, abusive marriage who killed her husband's mistress). Though Lalwani (Gifted) is at times too timid, her prose is evocative and excellent.
