Beggars Bedlam

A hilarious and absurdist take on the political landscape of West Bengal, India. Beggars Bedlam is a surreal novel that unleashes the chaos of the carnival on the familiar. Part literary descendent of Bulgakovs The Master and Margarita and part a reconstruction of lost Bengali history, Nabarun Bhattacharyas masterpiece is a jubilant, fizzing wire of subaltern anarchy and insurrection. Marshall Bhodi Sarkar and his lieutenant Sarkhel surreptitiously dig on the banks of the Ganges River looking for crude oil reserves. Instead, they unearth curved daggers, rusty broadswords, and a Portuguese cannon. Bhodi is an occasional military man and the lead sorcerer of the secret black-magic sect named Choktar. He joins forces with the flying Flaperoosmen with a predilection for alcohol and petty vandalismto declare outright war against the MarxistLeninist West Bengal government. In a bloodless revolution that is fascinating in its utter implausibility, a motley crew of yet more implausible characters come together in a magic-realist fictional remapping of Calcutta.