I want to carefully pen down my thoughts regarding this book. The story has been set against a backdrop of difficult times that West Bengal was going through. In terms of that I felt that the writing was lacking the finesse that might invoke the sentiments of the readers. I am familiar with the Naxal movement and still felt the info dumping was too bland to make anyone care for this movement and in return care for Udayan. The only thing that I cared for Udayan was the relationship he shared with Shubash. Shubash and Udayan were like two parts of the same coin and reading about them would make you think about your own siblings. However the base of their relationship was short lived in the book. We are soon introduced to Gauri, another of the protagonist. Both her and Shubash’s story was deeply explored showing various time periods of the lives, the paths they take, the friendships they form and the people they meet. It was quite interesting to read about these two very mundane character who never would have crossed paths, if not for Udayan. But it is the writing or the storytelling which made the book lack warmth and care. Too much info dumping about some random topic, forced descriptions of a house or a landscape, unwanted metaphors lowered the value of the story. I also felt that the characters didn’t grow much in the later years of their life. The resentment, guilt, trauma and all other negativity stayed. It isn’t uncommon. You never really get out of the dark, gritty years of your life and it was shown through every other characters of this story and the story has been about that and that only. But something about the way it was written that made me feel that the author was punishing them all for something. 

However after reading 414 pages of this book, somewhere you start caring for them. I did too.