This Place – Amitabha Bagchi

Description

Jeevan Sharma, an Indian immigrant in the US and a former taxi driver, manages his Pakistani landlord Shabbir Ahmad’s accounts in return for rent-free accommodation.The quiet rhythm of his days in Baltimore is punctuated only by interactions with his neighbours on 26th Street: Miss Lucy, an old black lady who makes him pancakes – a World War II veteran, Henry and his dog Oscar – and Matthew and Kay, a married couple in their late twenties, who are negotiating a difficult relationship.

Then two things happen to throw Jeevan’s life into disarray. This Place is a novel about a group of people for whom neighbourhood means more than simply living next to each other. It is a book about accepting and fighting against impermanence. It is also a book about South Asians in America at the end of the twentieth century.