Aiwa Maru

Anant Samant

Translated from Marathi by Prashant Pethe

Penguin Books India

476 pages, Rs. 399

Anant, a young Indian seaman, sets out from Hong Kong aboard the MT Aiwa Maru—a blacklisted vessel unfit to sail. As the multiracial crew confronts the terrors of the open sea, Anant is irresistibly drawn to Ujjwala, the second engineer’s beautiful young wife, and matters aboard the vessel spin dangerously out of control. A bestseller in Marathi ever since its publication 20 years ago, this is a psychological thriller with a bold style, a frenetic pace and a memorable cast of characters.