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Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line

Deepa Anappara

3.86 · Rating details · 4,672 ratings · 1,009 reviews

Three friends venture into the most dangerous corners of a sprawling Indian city to find their missing classmate.

Down market lanes crammed with too many people, dogs, and rickshaws, past stalls that smell of cardamom and sizzling oil, below a smoggy sky that doesn’t let through a single blade of sunlight, and all the way at the end of the Purple metro line lies a jumble of ...more

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Hardcover, 368 pages

Published February 4th 2020 by Random House

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Dec 29, 2019 Paromjit rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley, mystery, contemporary-fiction

Journalist and author Deepa Anappara draws our attention to the horrors and tragedy of the terrifyingly enormous numbers of children that go missing in India, a matter that is largely met by indifference in mainstream Indian society. The impoverished slums and community are depicted with an astonishing vibrancy as the people go about their daily lives and the challenges they face, lying within sight of the wealthy and powerful to whom the poor are invisible and a blight on their landscape. Annap ...more

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Jan 11, 2020 Marchpane rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-in-2020, arc-from-netgalley, 2020-releases

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line combines humour and warmth with tragedy and deprivation; innocence and optimism with bigotry and corruption. Despite the ‘djinn patrol’ of the title, there’s very little magic here.

Set in a basti, or Indian slum, where children have vanished and the police are disinclined to help, the novel follows 9-year-old Jai and his friends as they play detective to try and solve the case. It’s an incredible window on daily life in such a place – the precarity of knowing ...more

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Oct 05, 2019 Paige rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: cultural

I really enjoyed the atmosphere created. The environment reveals a distinct separation of classes and the varied lives according to social status and monetary value. Police negligence, religious violence, and educational values are exposed through this fictional tale set in India. The language was great, and I enjoyed the story being told through the eyes of nine-year-old Jai.

“The man scratches at his feathery beard. “Kids around here disappear all the time,” he says. “One day they’ll have t I really enjoyed the atmosphere created. The environment reveals a distinct separation of classes and the varied lives according to social status and monetary value. Police negligence, religious violence, and educational values are exposed through this fictional tale set in India. The language was great, and I enjoyed the story being told through the eyes of nine-year-old Jai.

“The man scratches at his feathery beard. “Kids around here disappear all the time,” he says. “One day they’ll have too much glue and decide to try their luck somewhere else. Another day they’ll get hit by a rubbish truck and end up in a hospital. Some other morning, they’ll be picked up by the police and sent to a juvenile home. We don’t make a fuss about anybody vanishing.””

The story itself became repetitive. After one child disappeared, Jai and Pari investigated and played detective, and I was into it. However, then the same thing just kept happening. Another would disappear, Jai and Pari would investigate, turn up empty handed and go home, then another disappear, etc. So, the progress wasn’t as engaging as I would have preferred.

For me, the most powerful chapters were “This Story Will Save Your Life” which were mostly stories of the djinns and other beliefs regarding wandering children. My favorite scene was when Jai and Pari went to the railway station. Because of the title and blurb, I have to admit that I thought a big portion of this novel would take place around the railway. However, there was only one big scene there in the beginning. I wasn’t too pleased with the ending, but I respect the underlying messages delivered to the reader through that conclusion.

I think the themes embedded in this story are significantly valuable. However, the progression of the story was uniform. Overall, I liked the story because of the important leitmotifs. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this copy. Opinions are my own.

More on railway children:
Railway Children in India
What happens to "railway" children ...more

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Jul 15, 2020 Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader rated it it was amazing

Shelves: buddy-read-with-beth, hard-soft-copy

Thank you, Random House, for the gifted book.

In Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, journalist and author, Deepa Anappara, has the reader firmly on the ground in an Indian basti, with its sights, sounds, and smells of the yummy food wafting through the neighborhood, and all of it is through the eyes of the lovable child narrator, Jai.

The book draws attention to the large number of children who go missing in India daily. Did you know close to 200 children go missing there each day? Jai takes us alon ...more

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Jan 15, 2020 Matt rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley

First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Deepa Anappara and Penguin Random House Canada for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

Delving into to the darker side of life in India, Deepa Anappara presents readers with this most impactful mystery. With close to two hundred children disappearing off Indian streets daily, this story about a missing child leaves the reader feeling a little less than comfortable. Jai may only be First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Deepa Anappara and Penguin Random House Canada for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

Delving into to the darker side of life in India, Deepa Anappara presents readers with this most impactful mystery. With close to two hundred children disappearing off Indian streets daily, this story about a missing child leaves the reader feeling a little less than comfortable. Jai may only be nine years old, but he seems to know just how life ought to be. When a boy goes missing in his school, Jai works with some of his friends to locate the young boy. Well-versed on police procedurals from his time watching television, Jai is sure hat he can lead a brigade just like on the screen. He’ll come across a great deal fo poverty, with people who will do and sell anything for their next meal, and travel late into the night to the far reaches of the city, all in hopes of capturing a killer, just like those on television. Refusing to back down, Jai encounters a number of stumbling blocks along the way, including incompetent police officers, members of gangs, and even the mysterious djinn, a spirit with a penchant for children. Forgetting the danger that creeps up regularly Jai will not return without answers, all in a place where another missing child is swept into the rubbish bin and forgotten. Jai refuses to ignore his intuition, even as those around him write him off as foolish. An interesting take with a strong backstory, surely of interest to some readers. That being said, I could not effectively connect with the story and it left me needing more to sustain my attention.

I am always fascinated to learn about new countries and cultures, particularly when the reader hails from that part of the world. Deepa Anappara not only spent her early life in India, but has written extensively about child disappearances and poverty on the streets. She brings much to the table in this piece, using a number of essential young characters to give the story a different perspective. The use of Jai and his friends helps to enrich the story for a reader who may know little about life on the streets or the horrible statistics about missing children. As this young boy looks for his classmate, he is fuelled by the sense that he, too, can locate someone in short order, as though he were closing a case before the credits scroll, like his favourite television personalities. The cast of characters seems to work well, different from one another and always trying to provide additional flavouring when it is useful. The story itself was well crafted and paces itself relatively well. I suppose I found myself lost in the shuffle from character depictions and how things developed. There is a strong story and the narrative keeps the reader intrigued, but I could not find a place on which to latch myself. Like many of the faceless people who see and hear nothing, I felt as though the essential aspects of the book passed me by. To see that others enjoyed it is pleasing, though I am surely going to sit in the minority outside the tent and say that this book was not one I found stellar.

Kudos, Madam Anappara, for shedding some light on the horrors of missing children. I trust many will find the pieces I could not in this novel and give you the praise you seek.

Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/... ...more

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Dec 07, 2019 Carolyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a tragic story that underlines the shocking fact that an estimated 180 children go missing in India each day. It describes the religious, social, and financial divides problematic in modern India. The story immersed me in the vibrantly described sights, food and fragrances of its slum setting. Here the people mostly love their children and care for the people in their neighbourhood despite the poverty, drudgery, and the squalor in which they live. The trauma of missing children began to This is a tragic story that underlines the shocking fact that an estimated 180 children go missing in India each day. It describes the religious, social, and financial divides problematic in modern India. The story immersed me in the vibrantly described sights, food and fragrances of its slum setting. Here the people mostly love their children and care for the people in their neighbourhood despite the poverty, drudgery, and the squalor in which they live. The trauma of missing children began to raise their suspicions, and anger at their corrupt and inefficient police force.

Nine-year-old Jai, a Hindu schoolboy is obsessed with detective and police shows on TV. He decides to become a child detective and enlists two of his schoolmates to serve as his assistants after a boy at his school, Bahadur, goes missing. Pari is smarter but is given a subordinate role because she is a girl. His friend Faiz, is. Moslem boy. He misses a lot of school as he needs to work to help his parents. Their investigation starts amidst complete indifference by the local police. The police make no effort to look for Bahadur, claiming he ran away.

The investigations by the three amateur detectives takes them into very dangerous parts of the city, such as the busy marketplace, the filthy local dump, the bordello district, and the train station at the end of the Blue Line. Rising above their dirty, ramshackle slum neighbourhood can be seen the highrise apartments and penthouses of the wealthy. As they interview families, shopkeepers, friends and suspects, they find no evidence of what happened to their missing schoolmate. Jai and Faiz suspect he may have been snatched by an evil Jinn (spirit), but the less superstitious Pari tries to dissuade them of this belief.

Soon other children go missing. Omvir, a friend of Bahadur, vanishes. Next, a 16-year-old girl, Aanchal, disappears. The police insist that Omvir has simply run away and refuse any search effort. Aanchal was a good girl employed as a beautician while studying English in hopes of becoming a call centre worker. The police, with no valid evidence, said she was a brothel worker in her 20s and had run away with a much older Moslem lover. When next, a 4-year-old girl disappears, not only are the parents of the missing distraught, but the entire neighbourhood is frantic and afraid for the safety of the children.

Since these five children were all Hindus, the suspicion and blame falls on local Moslems, putting innocent Moslem lives are in danger. When people complain about the inefficiency and disinterest of the police, they are threatened that their homes will be bulldozed for stirring up trouble. The case becomes more difficult when two Moslem children, a brother and sister, are next to disappear. Jai is becoming discouraged with his Djinn Patrol’s lack of progress, and then to add to the tragic crime wave, his older sister, a star athlete, is next to disappear.

Will Jai and his two friends manage to find any of the missing youngsters or any evidence of what happened to them? Who is committing these atrocious crimes? What is the motivation? Will his sister be found in time? What will be the aftermath for their families and neighbours?

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for this poignant and heartfelt story based on alarming facts. ...more

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Mar 23, 2020 Hannah Greendale rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: women-s-prize-nominee, mystery, adult, fiction, literary-fiction, thriller, contemporary

Fourth read from the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction longlist.

Most enjoyable for the richness of its sensory details. Cravings for samosas and tikka masala inevitably follow. It's easy to forget Deepa Anappara's protagonist is only nine years old, despite the occasional references to poop. The narrative structure is formulaic and the final chapters feel rushed, yet Anappara succeeds at piercing the smog-choked alleys of marginalized communities to reveal disturbing realities in present day India. ...more

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Feb 02, 2020 Lisa rated it liked it

[2.8] The strength of this novel is the vivid setting of the Indian basti (slum) and surrounding city that 9-year old Jai navigates. It is written as a light-hearted caper featuring Jai imitating a TV detective to find a missing friend. Until more children go missing and it is clear that there is a serious problem, it feels like a middle-grade novel. I ended up skimming the 2nd half. I'm not sure who the intended audience is - but it isn't me.
Thank you to Random House for the ARC. ...more

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Feb 16, 2020 Faith rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley, overdrive, audio, reviewed

“Do you know there are people who will make you their slaves? You’ll be locked up in the bathroom and let out only to clean the house. Or you’ll be taken across the border to Nepal and forced to make bricks in kilns where you won’t be able to breathe. Or you’ll be sold to criminal gangs that force children to snatch mobiles and wallets.” Hundreds of children go missing in India and some do not survive. The author of the book wanted to draw attention to these facts, but she also wanted to show th “Do you know there are people who will make you their slaves? You’ll be locked up in the bathroom and let out only to clean the house. Or you’ll be taken across the border to Nepal and forced to make bricks in kilns where you won’t be able to breathe. Or you’ll be sold to criminal gangs that force children to snatch mobiles and wallets.” Hundreds of children go missing in India and some do not survive. The author of the book wanted to draw attention to these facts, but she also wanted to show the “resilience, cheerfulness and swagger” of the marginalized children that she had interviewed when she was a journalist. Those characteristics are captured in Jai, the 9 year old amateur detective, and his friends who try to track down why one if their schoolmates has disappeared. And he is not the only one who fails to return home. At least Jai tried to solve the mystery, which is more than can be said for the police, despite the bribes that they received from people who really couldn’t afford to pay them.

The mystery and detection part of this book was just ok for me. What I really liked about the book were the incredible details about life in a basti (poor area) of India. The author doesn’t bother to translate for non Indians so it’s like a disorienting immersion in the country - including the homes, jobs, food, schools, pay toilets and smog. For example: “Quarter runs a gang that beats up teachers and rents out fake parents to students when they get into trouble and the headmaster insists on meeting their ma-papas.”, “...he stops at a theka in Bhoot Bazaar to drink a quarter-peg of daru, which is how he got the name Quarter.” and “His nose learned to catch the weakest of smells from hours before – marigold garlands, sliced papayas served with a pinch of chaat powder on top, puris fried in oil — to guide his steps to the right or left in dark corners.”

The story is told primarily from Jai’s point of view, and he was a terrific child, but then there are also chapters from the point of view of each of the missing children. So, I liked the descriptions and the voices, but I’m just not that crazy about child detectives. Overall, I found the book both educational and moving.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. ...more

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Jan 17, 2020 Louise Wilson rated it liked it · review of another edition

Jail lives in a poor slum in India. Children start going missing and he decides to investigate like the detectives do in his favourite TV shows. But Jai is just nine years old. The local police are not interested in finding the children.

The depiction of slum life is harrowing. It has also been sensitively written. Sometimes the book is a bit confusing and repetitive. The story is intriguing, funny and heart wrenching. I really liked Jai and his two friends who tried to find the missing children ...more

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Feb 22, 2020 Kathleen rated it really liked it

Anappara’s excellent debut novel is written from the POVs of children about children. As an Indian journalist, Anappara covered the deeply disturbing tragedy of children disappearing at the rate of nearly 180 per day. She felt that the personal stories of these children were getting lost amidst the appalling statistics. Thus, she wrote this novel primarily from the POV of Jai.

Nine-year-old Jai lives in a huge Indian basti (slum) in view of the ‘hi-fi’ luxury apartment buildings where his mother ...more

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Apr 20, 2020 Collin rated it really liked it

Longlisted, and hopefully shortlisted, for the 2020 Women's Prize.

The title of this novel may be a little misleading, a little baffling. This wonderful book is about children who are going missing from the basti of Jai, the nine-year-old protagonist. A “basti” refers to a slum village in India. The title of the book refers to the “djinns” who Jai’s detective partner. Faiz, continually insists are the culprits who are taking the missing children, and the purple line is the railway line that the c ...more

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Feb 04, 2020 Michelle rated it really liked it

Shelves: 52-weeks-of-woc, net-galley, debuts, she-spoke, 2020, february-2020, 2020-womens-prize-longlist, 2021-tob-longlist

180 children go missing each day in India. Only 1 in 3 will ever be found. These are staggering statistics and the basis of this novel.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is a coming of age novel set in the slums of an Indian city. Young Jai has a vivid imagination and a fascination with cop shows. When one of his classmates goes missing he enlists his two best friends, Pari and Faiz, into "detectivating" with him. As the three set about on their case we are introduced to the sights, sounds, and characters that fill the basti. Although this book shifts narrators to lend a voice to the victims as they go missing, it is told entirely from the perspective of children. Ranging in age from 5 to 16 you get to see how much they are neglected and overlooked, how much responsibility is placed in their small laps and the dangers they face as they try to navigate this world. You also get to see how they pass on knowledge through stories - "Listen. This story may save your life."

You're exposed to the corruption of the police force who are more concerned with collecting their hafta than looking for the lost. Police are not there to protect but to be feared. Parents are hesitant to report crimes. The threat of bulldozers demolishing their settlement is very real. You get to see how prejudice colors the investigation. Gender bias leads to adultification of female victims. Girls are mislabeled as older. Their sexual reputation becomes a focal point. Frictions between religious groups are exacerbated as rumor and innuendo lead to vigilante justice while the people wait for the police to respond.

Deepa Anappara has spent 11 years working as a journalist in India. Through her interviews with impoverished students she got to see their pluckiness in the face of adversity. She knew that she wanted to tell this story but felt that only a novel would give her the breadth to truly tell this story from their perspective.

Special thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group and Deepa Anappara for advanced access to this book. ...more

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May 08, 2020 Hugh rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2020, modern-lit

Longlisted for the Women's Prize 2020

I ordered this book before the Women's Prize shortlist was announced, but then gave priority to the shortlisted books, though this was one of the longlisted books that most interested me.

The narrator Jai is a nine year old boy growing up in a basti (slum) on the edge of an unnamed Indian city, near the end of the metro line which gives the book part of its title. Fortunately the djinns and fantasy elements only exist in Jai's head - his reality is a grim one, ...more

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Feb 23, 2020 Peter Boyle rated it liked it

This promising debut is narrated by Jai, a nine-year-old boy who lives in an Indian slum with his family. Their one-room house is located beside a rubbish dump, in an area smothered by smog, but they have learned to make the best of their situation. When his classmate Bahadur goes missing, Jai, an enthusiast of TV crime shows, decides to investigate. Enlisting the help of his friends, the hardworking Faiz and clever Pari, the trio try their best to solve the mystery. It becomes clear that a corr ...more

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Feb 28, 2020 Trudie rated it liked it · review of another edition

This starts out strongly but then becomes very repetitive somewhere along the way. The cover makes it seem like it will be a Boys Own Adventure type deal. It is not.

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Mar 15, 2020 Alice Lippart rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2020

Great characters and fantastic setting, but repetitive plot.

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Mar 18, 2020 Gumble's Yard rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020, 2020-women-longlist

I read this book due to its longlisting for the 2020 Women’s Prize.

The story is narrated in a simple first-person present tense (although one strewn with Hindi slang terms) by a nine-year old: Jai. Jai who lives with his parents and elder sister Runu (Runu-didi) in a basti (temporary turned permanent, slum district) in India. Runu is (to the extent Jai is a fan of real-life crime reenactment shows like “Police Patrol”, his two best friends are Pari (a bright girl) and Faiz (a Muslim, and believe ...more

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May 25, 2020 Dianne rated it really liked it

Shelves: best-of-2020

Imaginative saga about a nine year old boy, Jai, who lives in a slum in India with his parents and older sister. A rash of mysterious disappearances of children and teens besets his basti (settlement), so Jai and his intrepid friends Pari and Faiz decide to use their TV-honed detective skills to get to the bottom of things.

Jai is the narrator, and his voice is endearing - just right for a nine year old boy. The unfortunate part of that fresh and childlike narration is that, for me, it softened ...more

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Apr 15, 2020 Carmel Hanes rated it really liked it

An interesting blend of endearing and horrifying, this novel takes us to a slum in India where children begin disappearing. The locals care, but get little help from police, who don't seem to care or take seriously the first disappearances. Nine year old Jai begins to investigate with the help of a couple of friends. Plucky, earnest, and influenced by television detective shows, Jai amuses and entertains the reader with his insistence on proper police procedures and his observations of others, i ...more

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Jan 30, 2020 Lou rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Indian debut novelist Deepa Anappara is a refreshingly original and wonderfully unique read. In a sprawling Indian city, three friends venture into the most dangerous corners to find their missing classmate. . . Down market lanes crammed with too many people, dogs, and rickshaws, past stalls that smell of cardamom and sizzling oil, below a smoggy sky that doesn’t let through a single blade of sunlight, and all the way at the end of the Purple metro line lies a ...more

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Jun 07, 2020 Daniel Chaikin rated it liked it · review of another edition

"The horror of the destitute Indian basti, shown in Behind the Beautiful Forevers, is here captured through the fictional eyes of a 9 yr old trying to investigate as children start going missing. Anappara reported on these neighborhoods, and she captures the contrast between our hopeless view and that of children growing up in the Basti. I thought it was a little slow, and plain, but had some terrific elements, especially the opening section."

That was my Litsy review. I'll note that I had just f ...more

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Jul 04, 2020 Leslie Ray rated it liked it

Nine year old Jai, along with his friends Pari and Faiz are schoolmates who take it upon themselves to attempt to investigate the disappearance of one of their schoolmates. They try to be like the detectives that Jai watches endlessly on police shows. The police are not much help and the poverty of all involved hinders any help that they should be getting. During the children's' amateur sleuthing, more and more children continue to disappear, causing rifts between the Hindu and Muslim communitie ...more

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Jan 23, 2020 Helen Power rated it liked it

Shelves: author-publisher-giveaway, published-2020, arc, literary

Synopsis
Set in Metropolitan India, this atmospheric novel follows Jai and his two friends as they search for their missing classmate. Obsessed with a police television show, Jai is convinced that he will be able to find the boy, even when the police themselves are indifferent about the case. As more and more children go missing, however, it becomes clear that there is something insidious going on, and Jai's life will be forever changed by the events that unfold...
My Thoughts
This book is ...more

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Feb 15, 2020 Robert Blumenthal rated it it was amazing

This is a really excellent, though somewhat intense and heartbreaking debut novel. The author was a journalist in India for years and became aware of the rampant kidnapping of children that are later trafficked. Instead of writing an article about it, she chose to write a novel from the point of view of a nine-year-old boy. His name is Jai, and he is a wonderful guide through this very important story that is filled with the joy and optimism of a nine year old. Children start to disappear from h ...more

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Mar 04, 2020 Garry Nixon rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: on-real-shelf

Djinn Patrol takes us into the lives of people who live in a poor neighbourhood in the outer suburbs (at the end of the Purple Line on the metro) of a major Indian metropolis. The story is told by a nine year old who, with his two friends, decide to investigate the disappearance of children from their basti. They are children, but this isn't a children's book, so although it has some of the hallmarks of a whodunnit, there is no likelihood that the kids will solve the mystery.

To narrate the stor Djinn Patrol takes us into the lives of people who live in a poor neighbourhood in the outer suburbs (at the end of the Purple Line on the metro) of a major Indian metropolis. The story is told by a nine year old who, with his two friends, decide to investigate the disappearance of children from their basti. They are children, but this isn't a children's book, so although it has some of the hallmarks of a whodunnit, there is no likelihood that the kids will solve the mystery.

To narrate the story through the eyes of a not-very-smart nine year old is ambitious, but is largely achieved. He says of the woman getting her face bleached in a beauty parlour that she's "sitting still like a dead person". And a scene outside the toilet block, (the only place where the basti's inhabitants have access to water and lavatories), where tensions bubble up into Muslim v Hindu anger and bullying, and the protagonist's mother is berated on her mobile by her hi-fi employer, is one of the most troubling scenes I have read this year.

The author has been a journalist, and there is a lot of Dickens here, especially Bleak House: it's an engrossing story used as a frame to report social issues, the chief one here being the powerlessness of the working poor in an Indian city, the indifference of the police and opportunism of local politicians. And just as the London fog is a character in itself in Dickens, here the smog is a constant, malign presence.

The kids (mostly) go to school, and adults have the vote, but they all have a mountain to climb before becoming "hi-fi", (a term which encompasses people who live in flats, a vast social range from the elderly in blocks with rubbish-strewn lobbies, to the very rich in their penthouses). And we're reminded that the people at the centre of the story, poor as they are, are not the bottom of the heap, there are street children too, foraging and sleeping rough. There's a whole lot more here: the corrosive effects of Hindu nationalism, (especially on Muslims), and relentless misogyny. ...more

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Mar 20, 2020 Krista rated it liked it

Shelves: 2020, arc, the-subcontinent

“I told you it's a djinn,” Faiz says. “You won't catch it on the Purple Line.”

First time novelist Deepa Anappara started her writing career as a journalist in her native India and in her author's blurb it points out that “her reports on the impact of poverty and religious violence on the education of children won the Developing Asia Journalism Awards, the Every Human has Rights Media Awards, and the Sanskriti-Prabha Dutt Fellowship in Journalism.” What could possibly be more important to wri
“I told you it's a djinn,” Faiz says. “You won't catch it on the Purple Line.”

First time novelist Deepa Anappara started her writing career as a journalist in her native India and in her author's blurb it points out that “her reports on the impact of poverty and religious violence on the education of children won the Developing Asia Journalism Awards, the Every Human has Rights Media Awards, and the Sanskriti-Prabha Dutt Fellowship in Journalism.” What could possibly be more important to write about, than the welfare of children, in a country that apparently sees 180 children go missing every day? With Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, Anappara revisits this area of her concern and expertise, and as my ARC explains through an interview with the author in the endnotes, Anappara's intent here was to give a voice to the powerless or missing individual children who tend to get lost in dull statistics or lurid tabloid headlines. I applaud Anappara's intent, think that she did a really nice job of capturing the voice and experience of children, loved the gritty setting that she brought to multi-sensory life, but there was something just a bit too didactic about this story; too heavy with repetition, peripheral social issues, and telling-not-showing. To be sure, there were plenty of nicely novelistic touches here, but this wasn't a complete success for me. (Note: I read an ARC and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)

Do you know there are people who'll make you their slaves? You'll be locked up in a bathroom and let out daily only to clean the house. Or you'll be taken across the border to Nepal and forced to make bricks in kilns where you won't be able to breathe. Or you'll be sold to criminal gangs that force children to snatch mobiles and wallets. Take it from me, I have seen the worst of life. This is why children should never travel unaccompanied. This is why I'm giving you a lecture. What you're doing, it's irresponsible. It's downright dangerous.

Jai is a nine year old boy living in an illegal slum (or basti) on the edge of a “hi-fi” neighbourhood. He likes to play cricket in the alleyways, argue with his older sister (the celebrated athlete, Runu), daydream in class, and watch true crime TV shows with his parents when they finally get home from work every night (his Ma is a maid for a demanding woman in the closest hi-fi building, and his Dadi works on the metro's Purple Line nearby). When one of the neighbourhood kids, and then another one, goes missing, Jai enlists his two best friends – the most brilliant girl in class, Pari, and the hard-working Faiz – to join him in “detectiving” the case. What starts out as a Hardy Boys-type adventure becomes much more serious as more and more children go missing from their slum, and along the way, we are told about: a corrupt and indifferent police force; a sexist and downtrodden society that sees young girls taking care of their even younger siblings while their parents work long hours at unstable jobs; the frequent flare-ups between Hindu and Muslim neighbours (exacerbated by a self-serving political class); rampant child labour (out in the streets and with piecemeal work in their homes); and frequent comparisons of the food, hygiene, homes, job stability, access to justice, and education opportunities available to the rich and to the poor. It's a lot. The best part was Jai's naive and mischievous nature (many of his actions and observations are innocently humourous within the surrounding seriousness) and it was novelistically satisfying (if emotionally heavy) to watch as his innocence becomes corrupted by the reality of his world:

Believe me, today or tomorrow, every one of us will lose someone close to us, someone we love. The lucky ones are those who can grow old pretending they have some control over their lives, but even they will realise at some point that everything is uncertain, bound to disappear forever. We are just specks of dust in this world, glimmering for a moment in the sunlight, and then disappearing into nothing. You have to learn to make your peace with that.

I did find this to be a heavy read – I was rarely excited to pick it back up again – and as it is at heart a mystery, I knew that the plot would need to resolve into either: a) The missing children are all found alive and returned to their parents; or b) Some unhappy fate would be revealed. And as I read, I couldn't really decide which would be the more satisfying (as in “real” or “earned”) ending, and I will note that Anappara's conclusion didn't disappoint me. Again: this isn't totally unsatisfying – and I did learn plenty – but it didn't feel like a complete success, either. ...more

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Feb 10, 2020 OutlawPoet rated it really liked it

Shelves: diverse

What you need to know about this book is…

It’s going to break your heart.

It starts out with the most innocent children on earth, living in a land of abject poverty and corruption. And despite all the evils of their world, these kids are just so funny and pure. And you think you’re going to get a story that’s a bit adventure, a bit coming of age, and a sprinkling of magic.

But, oh, this gets dark and tragic. I wish it hadn’t. I completely understand why it does – I was just unprepared after the set ...more

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Mar 24, 2020 Jan rated it it was amazing

How can such a tragic story be so charming and funny? Anappara’s debut novel creates a wonderful child narrator (along with a few other POV characters) and takes us deep inside their lives in an Indian slum. She beautifully shows us their energy, wit and determination while illustrating the fact than 180 Indian children disappear every day.

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Apr 07, 2020 Katie Long rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Anappara notes in her Afterward that, as a journalist, what is often left out of tragic stories are the personalities of the people involved, and she made a point of showing those here. In the midst of unspeakable tragedy and fear, the children of this Basti are alive with humor, talent, and compassion that never came off as overly cute or out of place.

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“The poem wants to know why the moon is sliced in half on some days and why it‘s a circle in other days. The worst thing about the poem is that it doesn‘t answer it‘s own question.” — 2 likes

“Believe me,' the badshah says, 'today or tomorrow, every one of us will lose someone close to us, someone we love. The lucky ones are those who can grow old pretending they have some control over their lives, but even they will realize at some point that everything is uncertain, bound to disappear forever. We are just specks of dust in this world, glimmering for a moment in the sunlight, and then disappearing into nothing. You have to learn to make your peace with that.” — 2 likes

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