The Good Muslim of Jackson Heights

Jaysinh Birjepatil  

Penguin-Ravi Dayal,

256 pages, R275

In Jackson Heights, New York City's "Little India", hardworking, honest-to-goodness traders rub shoulders with ruthless entrepreneurs, reclusive antique dealers, homeless nobodies, larger-than-life merchant princes, lawyers, doctors and IT specialists. Into this heady mix land the urbane and sophisticated Amolinis—Siraj and Shabnam—sectarian violence in their central Indian hometown having driven them into enforced exile. The novel presents an absorbing portrait of our divided world.