Chronicle of an Hour and a Half — Book Review

About the Book

Book: Chronicle of an Hour and a Half
Author: Saharu Nusaiba Kannanari
Publisher: Westland Books
Published: February 2024
Format Read: Hardcover (gifted copy)

A Glimpse of the Book

Set in a fictional rural country in southern India, a news of an illicit affair between a married woman and a younger aged boy causes an uproar in the village. Blind rage stirs a mob and situation goes out of hand and out of rationale.

Review

The title and the plot reminded me of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s book Chronicle of a Death Foretold. However, the book is only memorable to me because of the chaos in the story, it was my first experience of magical realism. I was flabbergasted at the end of the last chapter. That’s it. I do not remember the intricates of the story, nor the writing, nor the characters.

That’s where this debut published novel by Kannanari (he had mentioned in a virtual meet that he has 3 more written which weren’t published) shines brighter. The descriptions are vivid and picturesque; the characters are all remarkably unlikeable, although in the end I couldn’t help but sympathise for Nabeessuma.

One line in the last page of the book hit me home that it still haunts me:

I gave my children everything. Except sex. Of course. I thought I should have given them that too. If only I knew that one day one of them was going to get killed for seeking it.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

I had received this book as part of Tandem Collective Global‘s India Readalong. Thank you Tandem and Westland Books.