A Little Distillery in Nowgong

by Ashok Mathur

This fantastical historical novel, narrated by a child yet to be born, traces the lives of three generations of a Parsi family in India beginning in the late 1800s. The narrative follows the Khargat family from the intricacies of village life in the jungles of central India, to the complications of urban life in turbulent pre- and post-independence struggles, to contemporary diasporic realities in the United Kingdom and North America. This beautifully told, engaging novel, by the author of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize finalist The Short, Happy Life of Harry Kumar , humanizes the politics of ethnicity, culture, and colonial rule.

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Ashok Mathur is an Indo-Canadian writer, visual artist and an associate professor of English and Modern Languages at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC, Canada. He holds a Canada Research Chair in Cultural and Artistic Inquiry and is the director of the Centre for Innovation in Culture and the Arts in Canada. He was born in Bhopal, India. In 1962, he emigrated with his family to Canada and was raised in the Maritimes. He has lived and worked in Calgary and Vancouver. He completed his studies at the University of Calgary, earning a Bachelor's degree, Master of Arts and Ph.D.. Prior to joining Thompson Rivers University in 2005, he taught at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design.

Reviews

[Anita Chang · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic book in all connotations of that word! It carries the element of the fantastic in that the narrator is an unborn child and it is such a great great read. It carries from india to england to canada and keeps your attention all the while. Anyone who is interested in fiction that crosses worlds should read this and enjoy it!

[Sarah]

I bought this treasure at the library in the for sale section. It's crazy good and funny and odd and wonderfully written.