Drifter, dropout, dreamer…Jingo believes he has rejected any form of class privilege in a ‘hideously unequal society’.
Making a meagre living as a part-time door-to-door market researcher, he jots down notes on characters and insights for a novel. Is he serious about his self-professed vocation? Or just too laid-back, just too fond of getting high?
As the story moves effortlessly from a middle-class Parsi housing colony to a far-flung slum on the outskirts of the city, memories of a bitter love affair continue to haunt Jingo, but it’s only when his other romance—with the city—erupts in a nightmare of horror that he realizes he’d better wake up before it’s too late.
The Radiance of Ashes is a beautifully described tale of desire, duty and dreams. It is also a story about families, about the truths we hold and the lies we tell, about the fires that burn in each of us – what is left once the flames have died away.
Cyrus Mistry began his writing career as a playwright, freelance journalist and short-story writer. His play Doongaji House, written in 1977 when he was twenty-one, has acquired classic status in contemporary Indian theatre in English. One of his short stories was made into a Gujarati feature film. His plays and screenplays have won several awards. His novel, Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer (2012), won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, 2014.
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