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The City and the Sea: A Novel
In a crumbling neighbourhood in New Delhi, a child waits for a mother to return home from work. And, in parallel, in a snow-swept town in Germany on the Baltic Sea coast a woman, her memory fading, shows up at a deserted hotel. Worlds apart, both embark, in the course of that night, on harrowing journeys through the lost and the missing, the living and the dead, until they meet in an ending that breaks the heart - and holds the promise of putting it back together again.Called the novelist of the newsroom, Raj Kamal Jha cleaves open India's tragedy of violence against women with a powerful story about our complicity in the culture that supports it. This is a book about masculinity - damaging and toxic and yet enduring and entrenched - that begs the What kind of men are our boys growing up to be?
178 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 25, 2019
3 people are currently reading
274 people want to read
About the author
Raj Kamal Jha
10 books32 followersRaj Kamal Jha (Hindi: राज कमल झा; born 1966) is Chief Editor of the daily newspaper The Indian Express and an acclaimed novelist. He lives in Gurgaon.
Jha was born in Bhagalpur, Bihar, and was raised in Calcutta, West Bengal, where he went to school at St. Joseph's College. He then attended the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, where he got his Bachelor of Technology with Honors in Mechanical Engineering. He was the editor of the campus magazine Alankar in his third (junior) and fourth (senior) years at IIT, where his first writing and editing skills got honed. After graduating from IIT in June 1988, he received a tuition waiver and full scholarship from Graduate School of Journalism at the University of Southern California to pursue a Master's program in Print Journalism; he received his M.A. in 1990.
(from Wikipedia)
Jha was born in Bhagalpur, Bihar, and was raised in Calcutta, West Bengal, where he went to school at St. Joseph's College. He then attended the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, where he got his Bachelor of Technology with Honors in Mechanical Engineering. He was the editor of the campus magazine Alankar in his third (junior) and fourth (senior) years at IIT, where his first writing and editing skills got honed. After graduating from IIT in June 1988, he received a tuition waiver and full scholarship from Graduate School of Journalism at the University of Southern California to pursue a Master's program in Print Journalism; he received his M.A. in 1990.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 20 reviews
September 24, 2019
'The city and the sea' is a reimagining of the Nirbhaya tragedy which happened on the 16th of December 2012. It was quite subtle in the narration of it.
The book has two parallel stories going on, one in New Delhi and one in a coastal town on the Baltic sea.
~
At its core, it's a story of a mother and her child. Her husband is unemployed and isn't able to find jobs. She works as a copy editor in a daily newspaper in Delhi. She constantly dreams of a vacation to a far off place near the sea, where she has booked a hotel and dreams of looking at snow.
On a cold December day, she leaves home as usual to go to work but doesn't return. Worried, her husband frantically begins to search for her leaving their son at home. He tries to get help from the police, but they aren't of much help.
~
The narrative alternates between the city and the sea. A young man-boy named December, comes to their home assuring the boy that he'll help him look for his mother. 'The sea' here is the dark underbelly of the city. We are offered a glimpse into December's life, how he metamorphosed from a young youth to a bus conductor to a heartless human being who is capable of doing heinous crimes.
The book felt very foggy to me. Jha subtly reflects on the refugee crisis and the elementary school shooting in the US. I am glad the book didn't have an open ending. The twist at the end was something I didn't see coming. The narrative falls flat in some places, but it quickly picks up pace. I think Jha was also trying to tell us how situations take over a person's morality and makes them so things they wouldn't normally do. This doesn't redeem the person in my eyes. The magical realism present throughout the story was good.
3.75 ⭐
The book has two parallel stories going on, one in New Delhi and one in a coastal town on the Baltic sea.
~
At its core, it's a story of a mother and her child. Her husband is unemployed and isn't able to find jobs. She works as a copy editor in a daily newspaper in Delhi. She constantly dreams of a vacation to a far off place near the sea, where she has booked a hotel and dreams of looking at snow.
On a cold December day, she leaves home as usual to go to work but doesn't return. Worried, her husband frantically begins to search for her leaving their son at home. He tries to get help from the police, but they aren't of much help.
~
The narrative alternates between the city and the sea. A young man-boy named December, comes to their home assuring the boy that he'll help him look for his mother. 'The sea' here is the dark underbelly of the city. We are offered a glimpse into December's life, how he metamorphosed from a young youth to a bus conductor to a heartless human being who is capable of doing heinous crimes.
The book felt very foggy to me. Jha subtly reflects on the refugee crisis and the elementary school shooting in the US. I am glad the book didn't have an open ending. The twist at the end was something I didn't see coming. The narrative falls flat in some places, but it quickly picks up pace. I think Jha was also trying to tell us how situations take over a person's morality and makes them so things they wouldn't normally do. This doesn't redeem the person in my eyes. The magical realism present throughout the story was good.
3.75 ⭐
October 9, 2019
Every Indian knows of the “Nirbhaya” case, of the story that shook the country and then brought its people together, even if only for a few days of awakened conscience and enraged morality. Not much changed after the anger for the fearless (Nirbhaya means fearless) who had succumbed to a brutal sexual assault died down, an incident that had sparked off nationwide protests. It is not easy to incorporate an event of such import into the fabric of a story that seeks to start a discussion regarding toxic masculinity and the damaged men we raise, all thanks to our lifelong companion—patriarchy and its many offshoots.
The City and the Sea by Raj Kamal Jha takes off from a point after the incident of gangrape has occurred and begins with a child looking for his mother who hasn’t returned home from her office. In the beginning, there is no mention of what could have happened to the mother, who along with her son and her husband, remains unnamed throughout. There is only panic, a sense of foreboding, which gives way to a frantic call to the cops. The cops come, ask questions, and leave with the promise of doing everything possible to help. Distraught, the father goes off on his own to look for his wife. But a child, so attached to his mother as to have been her confidante, cannot stay put either. So begins his own quest to find his mother, but with an unlikely aide. There’s a parallel story ongoing, of a woman who is somewhere in the Baltic Sea, in an isolated hotel, confused as to how she ended up there but enjoying the solitude nonetheless.
Nowhere in the book does Jha refer to the Nirbhaya case or Delhi directly but there are allusions aplenty to both. The two strands in the book, which appear alternatively under the titles of ‘The City’ and ‘The Sea’, have a surreal quality to them. I found myself wondering what exactly was happening in the book for greater part of it. It is only towards the end that the two narratives come together, in a brief moment of brilliance, to deliver a punch. But unfortunately, for the impatient reader, it comes too late, losing most of the impact it sought to deliver.
The thing with magic realism is that that the right mix of magic and reality is the key to effective delivery, otherwise, it all crumbles down to appearing unreal, almost like a fantasy. At this juncture, I would like to say that there’s nothing wrong with the genre of fantasy in itself as long as that is what the writer wanted to employ. I am pretty sure though that that is not the effect Jha wanted his writing to have, for it to make little sense and read like an incoherent dream for the most part, since his story is rooted in a rather grim reality.
I wanted to love the book, but I couldn’t. The writer, sadly, took too long to tie up the ends, to make us see what he was aiming for. But I have to say that the prose does read well, there’s a certain rhythm to it that appeals to the senses.
The City and the Sea by Raj Kamal Jha takes off from a point after the incident of gangrape has occurred and begins with a child looking for his mother who hasn’t returned home from her office. In the beginning, there is no mention of what could have happened to the mother, who along with her son and her husband, remains unnamed throughout. There is only panic, a sense of foreboding, which gives way to a frantic call to the cops. The cops come, ask questions, and leave with the promise of doing everything possible to help. Distraught, the father goes off on his own to look for his wife. But a child, so attached to his mother as to have been her confidante, cannot stay put either. So begins his own quest to find his mother, but with an unlikely aide. There’s a parallel story ongoing, of a woman who is somewhere in the Baltic Sea, in an isolated hotel, confused as to how she ended up there but enjoying the solitude nonetheless.
Nowhere in the book does Jha refer to the Nirbhaya case or Delhi directly but there are allusions aplenty to both. The two strands in the book, which appear alternatively under the titles of ‘The City’ and ‘The Sea’, have a surreal quality to them. I found myself wondering what exactly was happening in the book for greater part of it. It is only towards the end that the two narratives come together, in a brief moment of brilliance, to deliver a punch. But unfortunately, for the impatient reader, it comes too late, losing most of the impact it sought to deliver.
The thing with magic realism is that that the right mix of magic and reality is the key to effective delivery, otherwise, it all crumbles down to appearing unreal, almost like a fantasy. At this juncture, I would like to say that there’s nothing wrong with the genre of fantasy in itself as long as that is what the writer wanted to employ. I am pretty sure though that that is not the effect Jha wanted his writing to have, for it to make little sense and read like an incoherent dream for the most part, since his story is rooted in a rather grim reality.
I wanted to love the book, but I couldn’t. The writer, sadly, took too long to tie up the ends, to make us see what he was aiming for. But I have to say that the prose does read well, there’s a certain rhythm to it that appeals to the senses.
January 4, 2021
"She has bled so much she feels dry inside. She looks down, and where her stomach should be, there's nothing except black"
Raj Kamal Jha uses magical realism to give voice to a woman we all know as Nirbhaya.
The author uses the city to tell a story of a boy who lost his mother and the sea where a woman finds herself with faded memory.
There is also a third place,The Sea (with an uppercase) which carries the weight of the world we live in. The forgotten, the missing, the bad, are all found in this place.
There were moments when I found myself inside the book, walking with the characters, being afraid when they were.
This book has the power to transport you. From beautifully woven proses which sing to you to the images used. You would want to read every sentence deliberately, to let it sink deep in your skin.
Raj Kamal Jha uses magical realism to give voice to a woman we all know as Nirbhaya.
The author uses the city to tell a story of a boy who lost his mother and the sea where a woman finds herself with faded memory.
There is also a third place,The Sea (with an uppercase) which carries the weight of the world we live in. The forgotten, the missing, the bad, are all found in this place.
There were moments when I found myself inside the book, walking with the characters, being afraid when they were.
This book has the power to transport you. From beautifully woven proses which sing to you to the images used. You would want to read every sentence deliberately, to let it sink deep in your skin.
June 16, 2019
'The city and the Sea' is a daring and sincere approach to the 'Nirbhaya' rape case by Rajkamal Jha. An unconstrained narrative told in a simple yet powerful way, compelling the reader to ponder. Jha takes us on a roller coaster ride into the harsh reality of the city we live in and into a different facet of humna existence. A must read if you find yourself ready to get in touch with your conscience!
September 25, 2019
This can be a difficult read.The narrative follows a woman in a deserted hotel in remote Germany and a small boy in Delhi in search of his mother who has not returned home. Both situations are fraught with tensions but all we get is clever word play that can really try one’s patience and so, instead of being involved, one ends up feeling the dead weight of a long wait for the plot devices to work and make its point.
The pace picks up only halfway through when December, a young man starts telling a part of his life journey to the small boy. December takes the boy to his mother but not before he shows the boy his own world made up of pressing issues. The frequent mentions of Herta Müller (a Romanian-born German novelist, poet, essayist and Nobel Laureate who mostly gave voice to ‘the dispossessed’) is the first clue for readers to guess that the narrative will give voice to someone/those whose voice is seldom heard. The description of the clothes that the boy’s mother had dressed in while heading to work and the mention of newspaper headlines about violence and missing people are clues to work on.
Overall, the book's premise that sets itself on the horrific case of the death of young girl (whose real name has been taken over by a given one) after she was brutally gang raped in a moving bus is on the possibility of forgiveness. The free style, poetry like writing, is to give the dream like feel that people say exists in the moments between life and death but too much of it takes a toll.
Read it only if you are comfortable to reading a book with patience. Read it knowing that it can be trying but worth it somehow at the end of it.
The pace picks up only halfway through when December, a young man starts telling a part of his life journey to the small boy. December takes the boy to his mother but not before he shows the boy his own world made up of pressing issues. The frequent mentions of Herta Müller (a Romanian-born German novelist, poet, essayist and Nobel Laureate who mostly gave voice to ‘the dispossessed’) is the first clue for readers to guess that the narrative will give voice to someone/those whose voice is seldom heard. The description of the clothes that the boy’s mother had dressed in while heading to work and the mention of newspaper headlines about violence and missing people are clues to work on.
Overall, the book's premise that sets itself on the horrific case of the death of young girl (whose real name has been taken over by a given one) after she was brutally gang raped in a moving bus is on the possibility of forgiveness. The free style, poetry like writing, is to give the dream like feel that people say exists in the moments between life and death but too much of it takes a toll.
Read it only if you are comfortable to reading a book with patience. Read it knowing that it can be trying but worth it somehow at the end of it.
September 19, 2019
3.5 stars coz I'm not a fan of magic realism
Review to come
Review to come
September 24, 2020
Trigger warning: mentions of rape.
The City and the Sea by Raj Kamal Jha is a magical realism approach to the Nirbhaya rape case that rattled India in December of 2012.
To start with, the book is beautifully written. It’s full of vivid, mostly devastating descriptions which pull you right into the narrative. Raj Kamal Jha is a genius when it comes to painting pictures with his words. The book is a courageous attempt to ask questions that remained unasked in real life through his characters, especially December. In the author’s own words “If we want to explore what needs to be done to ensure our women are safe, we need to talk about what needs to be done to keep our boys human.” I think in some ways it’s also about how sometimes some situations trump morality and leave a person no choice but to do things that they wouldn’t do normally.
That being said, I think for a book of this kind to work there has to be a balance between the magic and realism which I found lacking here. The oneiric narrative that alternates between two strands, the city (which is the story of a son looking for his lost mother) and the sea (which deals with the mother’s afterlife), falls flat in some places. The mid section of the book feels a little dragged and overdone. There’s also very little relation between the city and the sea section which makes the story vague. It took me a while to catch on to the story and make sense of what I was reading. Even though the end was very unexpected, my biggest complain is that the author took too long to get to it.
All in all I think the book has been very skilfully written and every effort has been made by the author to do justice to these characters and their emotions. If for nothing else then read it for the prose, very beautifully written.
The City and the Sea by Raj Kamal Jha is a magical realism approach to the Nirbhaya rape case that rattled India in December of 2012.
To start with, the book is beautifully written. It’s full of vivid, mostly devastating descriptions which pull you right into the narrative. Raj Kamal Jha is a genius when it comes to painting pictures with his words. The book is a courageous attempt to ask questions that remained unasked in real life through his characters, especially December. In the author’s own words “If we want to explore what needs to be done to ensure our women are safe, we need to talk about what needs to be done to keep our boys human.” I think in some ways it’s also about how sometimes some situations trump morality and leave a person no choice but to do things that they wouldn’t do normally.
That being said, I think for a book of this kind to work there has to be a balance between the magic and realism which I found lacking here. The oneiric narrative that alternates between two strands, the city (which is the story of a son looking for his lost mother) and the sea (which deals with the mother’s afterlife), falls flat in some places. The mid section of the book feels a little dragged and overdone. There’s also very little relation between the city and the sea section which makes the story vague. It took me a while to catch on to the story and make sense of what I was reading. Even though the end was very unexpected, my biggest complain is that the author took too long to get to it.
All in all I think the book has been very skilfully written and every effort has been made by the author to do justice to these characters and their emotions. If for nothing else then read it for the prose, very beautifully written.
September 17, 2022
“Like a child whose only defence against the unexplained horrors of the dark is darkness itself, I closed my eyes, I was alone, the hurried beating of my heart the only company whose comfort I had.”
2012. December. On a cold winter night, India perhaps witnessed its most spine-chilling horror that shook the fabric of the country and opened its threads to the underlying brutality behind the glossy urbanised society. But, this novel does not recount that night. It tells a disturbing story of a fictional afterlife of what could have happened if Nirbhaya had imagined an alternate future for herself.
Narrated from the perspective of a ten-year-old child, who awaits his mother's return, a woman who is slowly losing her memory in Darss, along the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, and December himself, the juvenile who was present the day, ‘it’ happened. While Raj Kamal Jha weaves an extraordinary story through his magical realism, one finds themselves pulled into the girths of a brutal world, where The City is for those who survived or are surviving, whilst holding onto the last thread of humanity and sanity. The Sea represents those who are lost, missing and perhaps dead…
‘The City and the Sea’ by Raj Kamal Jha is a remarkable and in my opinion, one of the best novels of this century, reimagines a story that Nirbhaya may have woven for herself where she could have been a mother with a child who takes a journey to the southern coasts of Germany, along the Baltic Sea and feel the salt of the water and the snow, smear her face; separated and free from the gore reality of her life, that is slowly ending. So, through her fabricated afterlife, we find a glimpse into the nights of the world where the missing and the dead awake, trying to find a shore after swimming in The Sea for too long. A fictional afterlife of rape, Jha’s novel, shocked me in ways I cannot fathom. Brewed with hope, care and love, and its occasional eccentricity, one is forced to imagine themselves as a physical entity and empathise while exposing the crushed toxic bones of masculinity that births brutes for men.
2012. December. On a cold winter night, India perhaps witnessed its most spine-chilling horror that shook the fabric of the country and opened its threads to the underlying brutality behind the glossy urbanised society. But, this novel does not recount that night. It tells a disturbing story of a fictional afterlife of what could have happened if Nirbhaya had imagined an alternate future for herself.
Narrated from the perspective of a ten-year-old child, who awaits his mother's return, a woman who is slowly losing her memory in Darss, along the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, and December himself, the juvenile who was present the day, ‘it’ happened. While Raj Kamal Jha weaves an extraordinary story through his magical realism, one finds themselves pulled into the girths of a brutal world, where The City is for those who survived or are surviving, whilst holding onto the last thread of humanity and sanity. The Sea represents those who are lost, missing and perhaps dead…
‘The City and the Sea’ by Raj Kamal Jha is a remarkable and in my opinion, one of the best novels of this century, reimagines a story that Nirbhaya may have woven for herself where she could have been a mother with a child who takes a journey to the southern coasts of Germany, along the Baltic Sea and feel the salt of the water and the snow, smear her face; separated and free from the gore reality of her life, that is slowly ending. So, through her fabricated afterlife, we find a glimpse into the nights of the world where the missing and the dead awake, trying to find a shore after swimming in The Sea for too long. A fictional afterlife of rape, Jha’s novel, shocked me in ways I cannot fathom. Brewed with hope, care and love, and its occasional eccentricity, one is forced to imagine themselves as a physical entity and empathise while exposing the crushed toxic bones of masculinity that births brutes for men.
November 21, 2019
Have you ever read a book where you read the first few pages and you have no idea how the story progresses?
Well, this is one such book. This book kind of shows magical realism where most of the part we are in between fantasy and reality.
To be honest, the first 100 pages of the book was confusing and I found myself skimming the pages. As you proceed with the story, like a puzzle everything falls into place.
The events of the book remind me of Nirbhaya. And the events are described just enough for us to understand without any explanations or violence.
This book shows how a person can be influenced easily by their company and I felt that the author tried to show the perspective of the convict.
But the thing is, whatever the circumstances may be a crime is a crime and no amount of justification and perspectives will be enough to validate what they did to Nirbhaya.
Also, I came to realise how many crimes happen in our cities. Whatever reasons we are giving ourselves, we are using it only to go through the day.
Well, this is one such book. This book kind of shows magical realism where most of the part we are in between fantasy and reality.
To be honest, the first 100 pages of the book was confusing and I found myself skimming the pages. As you proceed with the story, like a puzzle everything falls into place.
The events of the book remind me of Nirbhaya. And the events are described just enough for us to understand without any explanations or violence.
This book shows how a person can be influenced easily by their company and I felt that the author tried to show the perspective of the convict.
But the thing is, whatever the circumstances may be a crime is a crime and no amount of justification and perspectives will be enough to validate what they did to Nirbhaya.
Also, I came to realise how many crimes happen in our cities. Whatever reasons we are giving ourselves, we are using it only to go through the day.
December 27, 2020
More than good-bad, my primary gripe with the book is that it is annoying, even when it's articulate (Jha does have a very dreamy command over the language, even if it is a bit unwieldy in places). Using the Nirbhaya gangrape to unspool a meta-trauma narrative lodged in an alternative dreamscape, that really, doesn't attempt to say anything new annoyed me. It's not as if there aren't a plethora of voices using that bloody traumatic moment to give wings to their imagination. I get it that Jha wants to look at the story from the perspective of forgiveness and empathy, but really, using a young "innocent" boy who isn't aware of the bloody and pulverizing transgression of rape is just too pat, if not pious and patronizing. At one point Jha uses first person to speak from the perspective of the survivor of rape, and the tone felt off, empty, and almost sermon-like. The complexity of being a survivor is shunned for a more easier narrative to lodge the forgiveness angle. It's all too banal to be of impact and too interested in swooning the audience to move them.
July 10, 2020
While many applaud Jha for talking about abuse and rape through a lens of magical realism, it just didn't sit right with me. To be fair to the writing, it neither romanticized nor downplayed the atrocities of the crime (I particularly remember,'December and his friends tore up Babyhouse, that's what Ma said'). It was the passive nature of the protagonist, the unquestioned audacity of December, and the climax at the end (where the city meets the sea) that left me feeling unsatisfied. I picked this book up hoping that Jha would delve into the culture of toxic masculinity in India but there wasn't enough of it discussed- no real justice was served to Ma (accountability to counter toxic masculinity!), and the ending call for an afterlife of peace for the survivors that left me wanting more! All in all, Jha's experimental take on the Nirbhaya rape case did not leave me feeling hopeful as its reviewers promised it would. 4/10
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 9, 2019
This book is a poignant story that inconspicuously alternates between reality, imagination and fiction, narrating a story of sexual violence and abuse without so mentioning those words, although rape has a ubiquitous presence throughout the book. Using stream of consciousness, magical realism, suspension of disbelief and confessions, the book explores themes of human suffering, repentance, urban poverty and neglect, social mobility and migration on one hand as well as Indian female stereotypes, family relationships, maternal love and empathy on the other. The narration complicates the notion of crime with layers of social and historical contexts - bold attempt given the shadow of rape that shrouds the book.
January 7, 2020
The City and the Sea by @rajkamal.jha is not your regular novel written by a journo-author. It delves into Magical Realism to tell the horrifying story of the Nirbhaya Rape Case, that shook the conscience of the nation a few years ago.
When I picked up the book, I kept wondering how come this book is based on that incident (as all the reviews claimed). After a while, as the pages were turned and dots started getting connected at the end between the two stories running in parallel, I fell short of words to describe the author's unimaginable way to think of the horrific incident with a completely philosophical & poetic way as well as to pin down his thoughts in words which can move the reader with pinching allegories, disturbing descriptions and emotionally draining prose
When I picked up the book, I kept wondering how come this book is based on that incident (as all the reviews claimed). After a while, as the pages were turned and dots started getting connected at the end between the two stories running in parallel, I fell short of words to describe the author's unimaginable way to think of the horrific incident with a completely philosophical & poetic way as well as to pin down his thoughts in words which can move the reader with pinching allegories, disturbing descriptions and emotionally draining prose
February 7, 2021
First off the bat, I am not very familiar with the magical realism genre. So Raj Kamal Jha's book would be an introduction to it. And disclaimer: Jha was my boss at The Indian Express, although he probably does not remember me.
So, I read the book in spurts. The first time I didn't understand and hated it. Who the heck writes like this, I thought, and why would anyone think of giving this a prize? It made no sense. So, I threw it into the pile of other books (figuratively speaking, I had bought the Kindle edition), some of them forgotten, and went on to read Richard P Feynman's Six Easy Pieces. In Pieces, I got supremely annoyed over not understanding gravitational potential energy and put it aside too, which is when I found Jha's book again.
At once it started making sense. Yes, not my glass of whisky, but it was not entirely bad as I first thought. Soon enough, I wanted to know further. I followed the boy, I followed the woman in their journeys to The Sea. The City was a familiar territory, The Sea wasn't although it all made sense now.
In a way, the "other side" or as fans of Stranger Things might call it, the "upside down".
To those familiar with India, much of what happens to the woman would seem to be a throwback to those times when protester were not considered anti-national (I too, like Jha, being a newsman could recognise and appreciate the importance, but I wonder if others would).
The story also attempts to view people sympathetically, something that we sometimes fail to do in the real world. But it does it without forgiveness.
The ending, for me, was a bit confusing. But perhaps that too requires a second reading.
A good book, but be patient when you read.
So, I read the book in spurts. The first time I didn't understand and hated it. Who the heck writes like this, I thought, and why would anyone think of giving this a prize? It made no sense. So, I threw it into the pile of other books (figuratively speaking, I had bought the Kindle edition), some of them forgotten, and went on to read Richard P Feynman's Six Easy Pieces. In Pieces, I got supremely annoyed over not understanding gravitational potential energy and put it aside too, which is when I found Jha's book again.
At once it started making sense. Yes, not my glass of whisky, but it was not entirely bad as I first thought. Soon enough, I wanted to know further. I followed the boy, I followed the woman in their journeys to The Sea. The City was a familiar territory, The Sea wasn't although it all made sense now.
In a way, the "other side" or as fans of Stranger Things might call it, the "upside down".
To those familiar with India, much of what happens to the woman would seem to be a throwback to those times when protester were not considered anti-national (I too, like Jha, being a newsman could recognise and appreciate the importance, but I wonder if others would).
The story also attempts to view people sympathetically, something that we sometimes fail to do in the real world. But it does it without forgiveness.
The ending, for me, was a bit confusing. But perhaps that too requires a second reading.
A good book, but be patient when you read.
June 4, 2025
I knew how it would end, but i could not stop reading. It is heartbreaking to say the least but definitely a must read. Heavily inspired by the nirbhaya rape case, makes you question what masculinity actually is. I really am truly sorry for all the victims out there.
September 6, 2020
This was a painful read but so beautiful at the same time
Want to read
December 11, 2020From where I can read it
March 27, 2020
"The Sea collects the things we lose. That arrive in boxes we don't open. Gifts never given, objects that roll away into hidden corners. Slip through holes in pockets, slide into narrow spaces. Tumble off edges into the void, get trapped in lapses of memory. Whose absence, like their presence, is hardly felt."
RATING: 3/5
Raj Kamal Jha radically reorients common perception of trauma through the usage of an inventive narrative which forces us to consider possibilities beyond the realm of facts. Using the Nirbhaya Rape of December 2012 as a jumping point, the book examines India's uncomfortably high level of violence against women. The characters in the novel have no names and as such occupy a state of existence where transference is possible. Jha thrives on allegory, and he weaves a tale which weds the magical with the real in his quest to bare the bones of barbarity, unveil darkness, and still find some semblance of hope and resilience.
Magical realism is a hit or miss and for me, this was a miss. It was all too often an incoherent mess, like a strange surreal dream which just frustrates. The Sea sections frequently appeared pointless fluff and the coming together of the two strands was haphazard and uneven, to say the least. As such, too much focus on style instead of substance that can try a reader's patience with the pace at which the narrative unfolds. The references to the Middle-East Refugee Crisis and the Sandy Hook Massacre appear a bit shoehorned. The prose is also patchy, yielding gems and duds in equal measure. While a fine enough book, it could have been so much better with fewer flourishes.
RATING: 3/5
Raj Kamal Jha radically reorients common perception of trauma through the usage of an inventive narrative which forces us to consider possibilities beyond the realm of facts. Using the Nirbhaya Rape of December 2012 as a jumping point, the book examines India's uncomfortably high level of violence against women. The characters in the novel have no names and as such occupy a state of existence where transference is possible. Jha thrives on allegory, and he weaves a tale which weds the magical with the real in his quest to bare the bones of barbarity, unveil darkness, and still find some semblance of hope and resilience.
Magical realism is a hit or miss and for me, this was a miss. It was all too often an incoherent mess, like a strange surreal dream which just frustrates. The Sea sections frequently appeared pointless fluff and the coming together of the two strands was haphazard and uneven, to say the least. As such, too much focus on style instead of substance that can try a reader's patience with the pace at which the narrative unfolds. The references to the Middle-East Refugee Crisis and the Sandy Hook Massacre appear a bit shoehorned. The prose is also patchy, yielding gems and duds in equal measure. While a fine enough book, it could have been so much better with fewer flourishes.
December 10, 2019
The City and the Sea is a journey through a surreal psychological world, to arrive at a conclusion that the acknowledgement of social evils and ones contribution to it, including that of its inhabitants, as the first step for healing. The writer has clearly adopted elements from the infamous Nirbhaya gangrape case that shook India in December of 2012. Notwithstanding the excellent literary qualities of the book, I would have preferred if this was not the case. To elucidiate the basic premise of the books, the author conjures up a fictitious narrative of the repentance of the minor involved in the case to show that acceptance of ones crime is the first step to be delivered from the purgatory of the Sea. Also, there are elements of realization on the part of the victim about the helplessness of the perpetrators which result in closure and some sort of forgiveness, which may not be true. It is very easy to adopt a moral high ground standing on the tomb of somebody’s misfortune. But it sometimes becomes hard on the part of the reader to appreciate it.
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