In a distant corner of the globe, a man journeys to the birthplace of his mother, a tourist town destroyed by an industrial spill. In a nameless remote tribe, the chief’s second son is born, creating a scramble for succession as their jungles are being destroyed by loggers. In one of the world’s sprawling metropolises, a homeless one-armed woman sets out to take revenge upon the men who … trafficked her. And, in a small village of shanty shacks connected only by a mud-and- concrete road, a milkmaid watches the girls she calls friends destroy her reputation.In we of the forsaken world… Kiran Bhat tells the stories of four worlds falling apart, through the structure of four linguistic chains, comprised of the accounts of four people witnessing the decline of these worlds, in four acts. Like modern communication networks, these sixteen stories connect along subtle lines, dispersing at the moments where another story is about to take place. they flow together and disconnect. Each story is a parable of its own, into the mind of a distinct human being. These are the tales of not just sixteen strangers, but many different lives, who live on this planet, at every second, everywhere.
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Genre: Literary Fiction
We of The Forsaken World is a novel that tells the story of four different fictional worlds. These worlds are declining morally, culturally and in other aspects as well. The book is very well structured. In the beginning, the author lines out the four different worlds he has created giving each one of them its distinct features, characteristics, and issues. I truly appreciate the author for this decision of creating alternative worlds because he clearly mentions in his introduction that he did not want to speak for anyone but himself. Another thing I appreciate is the addition of the illustrations of the worlds. They made it a lot easier to visualize them accurately.
Although this is a novel, it actually consists of sixteen different stories that these worlds connect together. There are several characters who interconnect these stories by appearing in multiple ones of them. These are characters that one can relate to, at least to some of them based on the reader’s life experiences. There is a milkmaid, a chief’s son, A carpenter’s daughter, a journalist, a grandfather, a preacher, and many more. What I did not realize until I finished reading the book is that all these characters were nameless! I remember reading a novel like that where the characters were nameless and it bothered me a lot. But in the case of this book, I did not even realize that characters were without names until the end which shows how well it is written in that aspect.
“There was a reason why philosophers preached self-love over all else, because if we accept our own body or mind, no matter their condition, on the day when the clock reverts to zero, and our bodies become dust, we will be at the right place.”
This is a very well-written book. Kiran Bhat’s lyrical writing style and how he connected the stories together using some poetry made the move from a story to another flawless. It doesn’t feel like you are reading different stories. It makes you feel you are living in a big world with all these people who have their own personal problems that connect with each other and with their world. What makes this book so relevant are the crucial subjects it touched be it globalization, technology, industrialization, sexuality, abuse, greed, suicide, violence, mental illness, and several other important subjects that I am sure a lot of the readers will be able to relate to.
The author has brilliantly created his own fictional worlds in this book but all these worlds represent our own world in its true form and are written in a subtle tone that will never feel intrusive or assertive. I feel many of the stories will make you pause the reading for some time to think about the important subjects before resuming to the next story. I appreciate it a lot when a book stirs up all the thoughts in my mind and makes me look at a certain subject from all different angles. We of The Forsaken World did all this to me.