Last Song Of Dusk

Pirouetting between laughter and tears, Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi's technicolour debut tells the story of four extraordinary lives. Of Anuradha Gandharva, gifted with astonishing beauty and magical songs; of her husband, Vardhmaan, struggling with secret losses; of Nandini, a deviously alluring artist, with a penchant for panthers and walking on water; and of Shloka, the Gandharvas' delicate, disturbingly silent child.

As their fates unravel in an old villa in 1920s' India, they learn to navigate the ever-changing landscape of love, and in doing so encounter a host of eccentrics: Mr Bunkusdaas, the father of Bollywood cinema; Stella Dimm, `England's first ever Tit girl'; Libya Dass, rarely seen out of her porcelain bathtub; and Percival Worthington, the aristocratically limp son of the governor of Bombay, on whom Nandini rashly sets her sights.

The Last Song of Dusk is a tale of exquisite friendships, immense sacrifices and dangerous desires. Told with tenderness and with dazzling wit, it will haunt you long after you have turned the final page.

‘‘ …full of sharp wit and the kind of tantalizing writing that fills you with certain envy and delight at the simple pleasure of a well-told story'''– The Economic Times‘..the quality of prose is of the highest order – it is, in fact, poetry…’– The Hindu‘… Shanghvi knows how to wield a magical pen… a promising debut’-The Telegraph‘A magical piece of storytelling’ ­The Sunday Times‘Kundera has a tropical heir…a luminous debut’ India Today‘A magnificent debut’­ Wall Street Journal‘[A] colourful first novel…what begins as an erotic fairy tale grows into an exploration of love and loss, sexuality and innocence, friendship and solitude…Shanghvi’s loose, poetic style…[is] cut with a dash of magical realism…[and his] story has eloquent insights into the nature of love’­ The Times Literary Supplement‘Full of sharp wit and the kind of tantalizing writing that fills you with certain envy and delight at the simple pleasure of a well-told story’—The Economic Times‘The quality of prose is of the highest order—it is, in fact, poetry’ —The Hindu ‘Shanghvi knows how to wield a magical pen… a promising debut’—The Telegraph ‘A magical piece of storytelling’ —The Sunday Times‘Shanghvi, at 26, has… extended the boundaries of the Indian novel in English… as style goes, it is Mendelssohn plus a sprinkling of Marquez, and for the sensuality part, Kundera has a tropical heir… As you leave the last page, you want to tell Shanghvi one little irony of his luminous debut: friend, it is the first song of dawn, and we are waiting for the next’’
India Today ‘A masterpiece’ —Pioneer‘A magnificent debut’ —Wall Street Journal ‘[A] colourful first novel…what begins as an erotic fairy tale grows into an exploration of love and loss, sexuality and innocence, friendship and solitude…Shanghvi’s loose, poetic style…[is] cut with a dash of magical realism…[and his] story has eloquent insights into the nature of love’ —The Times Literary Supplement‘A magical debut. Madcap characters shimmy across the pages, throwing out slangy witticisms with insouciant charm, but underneath the glitz the mood is mythically melancholy. Delicious’ —Elle, UK