The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay

Karan Seth, star photographer, is in Bombay to immortalize the city in a unique photo-record of its hidden faces. In the pursuit of his ambitious dream, he finds unlikely allies: Samar Arora, the eccentric pianist who inexplicably spurned limelight at the peak of his career; Zaira, whose shy elegance belies her status as the ravishing star of Bombay’s silver screen; and Rhea Dalal, whose seductive melancholy born of unfulfilled dreams and a childless marriage draws Karan into a tender but twisted affair. 

 

Then tragedy strikes, tearing the four lives apart.  As a murky murder trial ensues, Karan is exposed to a Fitzgeraldian world of sex, crime and politics. Utterly disenchanted, he abandons the camera and Bombay and heads to England in search of restitution and normalcy. Yet, like the flamingoes of Sewri, who unfailingly give in to the strange, haunting pull of the great metropolis, Karan too knows that he must return to his old loves …

 

The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay is as much a razor-sharp depiction of contemporary urban society and its obscene obsession with celebrity and sensation as it is an affecting tale about love’s betrayals and the redemptive powers of friendship. It confirms Shanghvi’s prodigious skill and range as a storyteller.

‘‘ ‘Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi is an original, a major storyteller … The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay is a triumph’’
Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club

‘‘Shanghvi belongs to the rarest of breeds: a writer who can truly capture the flaws in the human condition’’
Tash Aw, author of The Harmony Silk Factory

‘‘Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi’s The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay is about love, longing and the ache at the heart of desire. Shanghvi slides love under the microscope and dissects it with a doctor’s eye … Melancholic, gritty and relentlessly contemporary, this is a novel that simply demands to be read’’
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