Anchorite Book

Another book borrowed from my parents, which means I have now read all three of the Anita Desai novels that made the Booker shortlist (the others being Clear Light of Day and Fasting, Feasting).

The protagonist Deven works as a Hindi teacher in Mirpore, a small town near Delhi, who aspires to be an Urdu poet. His life is unrewarding, but he is offered a form of escape by a former college friend Murad, who runs an Urdu magazine in Delhi and enlists Deven's help to arrange an interview with a great Urdu poet Nur. Nur is now an old man, who drinks too much and spends much of his life hosting sycophants and hangers-on, and Deven's attempts to get him to remember his poetry are largely frustrated, giving the book a tragicomic tone.

Another enjoyable read, but for me Clear Light of Day is still the best of the three.