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|
The
2004 Award
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|
The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru |
Nominated by:
Publisher
of Nominated Edition: |
| the complete A-Z listing of nominated authors |
|
ABOUT
THE BOOK
|
| Pran
Nath Razdan, the boy who will become the Impressionist, was fathered, through
circuitous circumstances, by an Englishman and passed off by his Indian
mother as the child of her husband, a wealthy man of high caste. Growing
up in luxury just downriver from the Taj Mahal, at fifteen the news of Pran's
true parentage is revealed and he is tossed out into the street--a pariah
and an outcast. Thus begins an extraordinary, near-mythical journey of a
young man who must reinvent himself to survive--not once, but many times.
Imprisoned in a brothel and dressed in women's clothes, his sensuous beauty is exploited as he is made to become Rukhsana, a pawn in a game between colony and empire. To a depraved British Major he becomes Clive, an object of desire taught to be a model English schoolboy. Escaping to Bombay he begins a double life as Robert, dutiful foster child to a Scottish missionary couple and as Pretty Bobby, errand boy and sometime pimp to the tawdry women of the city's most notorious district. But as political unrest begins to stir, Pran finds himself in the company of a doomed young Englishman-an orphan named Jonathan Bridgeman. Having learned quickly that perception is a ready replacement for reality, Pran soon finds himself on a boat bound for Southampton where, with Bridgeman's passport, he will begin again. First in London, then at Oxford, the Impressionist hones his chameleon-like skills, making himself whoever and whatever he needs to be to obtain what he desires. |
| ABOUT THE AUTHOR |
| Hari Kunzru, born in London and raised in Essex, England, is a freelance journalist and editor who has written for numerous international publications, including The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, The Economist, and Wired. In 1999, the Observer named him "Young Travel Writer of the Year." The Impressionist was shortlisted for the 2002 Whitbread First Novel Award. He lives in London, where he is completing work on his second novel. |
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