The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay »

Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi’s debut novel, The Last Song of Dusk, won the Betty Trask Award in the UK, the Premio Grinzane Cavour in Italy, and was nominated for the IMPAC Prize in Ireland. The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize 2008 and was a number one bestseller in India. His work has been translated into fourteen languages. He lives in Bombay. For more information, please visit Siddharth at www.facebook.com/shanghvi.

When photographer Karan Seth comes to Bombay intent on immortalizing a city charged by celebrity and sensation, he is instantly drawn in by its allure and cruelty. Along the way, he discovers unlikely allies: Samar , an eccentric pianist; Zaira, the reclusive queen of Bollywood; and Rhea, a married woman who seduces Karan into a tender but twisted affair. But when an unexpected tragedy strikes, the four lives are irreparably torn apart. Flung into a Fitzgeraldian world of sex, crime and collusion, Karan learns that what the heart sees the mind’s eye may never behold. This razor sharp chronicle of four friends caught in modern India ’s tidal wave of uneven prosperity and political failure is also a profoundly moving meditation on love’s betrayal and the redemptive powers of friendship.

Publishers Weekly

In this intense exploration of modern Bombay, photographer Karan Seth gets an assignment to capture the essence of the city, beginning with finding the reclusive pianist, Samar Arora, who opted out of a promising career at 25 after three years of stunning successes . Along the way Karan, new to the city, rockets into the nebulous world of privilege, power, and money as he forms an unlikely friendship with Samar, connects with Bollywood stunner Zaira, and has a torrid affair with married artist Rhea Dalal. When a tragedy rips the friends apart, they each must re-examine their values and desires in the harsh light of political realities with the potential to destroy them all. Shanghvi's second novel (after The Last Song of Dusk) successfully exposes the complex, emerging world of new India, flush with wealth and mesmerized by celebrity. Despite prose that tips toward overwritten, the well-developed characters and a plot that evokes Bollywood cinema itself make for an affecting tale. Shanghvi finds the beauty and the ugliness in the megacity, and readers will be turning pages until the end. (Oct.)