Akhil Sharma

Ram Karan, a corrupt official in the Delhi school system, lives in one of the citys slums with his widowed daughter and his eight-year-old granddaughter. Bumbling, ironical, sad, Ram is also a man tortured by a terrible guilty secret. When Rajiv Gandhi, the soon-to-be Prime Minister, is murdered, the country is plunged into confusion and Ram, as his departments resident bribe-collector, is trapped in a series of escalating, potentially deadly political betrayals. While he tries to protect himself and his family, his daughter reveals a crime that he had hoped would be buried forever. An Obedient Father takes the reader to an India that is both far away and real - into the mind of a character as tormented, funny, and morally ambiguous as one of Dostoevskys anti-heroes. This is a subtly rendered tragicomedy of contemporary India by an enormously gifted young writer.

Akhil Sharmasnew collection is a remarkable achievement. These tender, elegant stories - each of which was first published in the New Yorker - all explore the unpredictability of human emotion. In the sleek, minimalist prose for which his prize-winning novel Family Life was acclaimed, Sharma skilfully reveals the obstacles we face in making meaningful relationships. A striking fusion of fiction and memoir, A Life of Adventure and Delight is unflinching in exposing the burdens of trauma, infidelity, and mortality. Whether in New York or Delhi, Sharmas protagonists are always discovering what it really means to be mothers and daughters, sons and lovers, husbands and wives. Painfully intimate, this is a tour de force from a unique literary voice.

Ajay, eight years old, spends his afternoons playing cricket in the streets of Delhi with his brother Birju, four years older. They are about to leave for shiny new life in America. Ajay anticipates, breathlessly, a world of jet-packs and chewing-gum. This promised land of impossible riches and dazzling new technology is also a land that views Ajay with suspicion and hostility; one where he must rely on his big brother to tackle classroom bullies. Birju, confident, popular, is the repository of the familys hopes, and he spends every waking minute studying for the exams that will mean entry to the Bronx High School of Science, and reflected glory for them all.When a terrible accident makes a mockery of that dream, the family splinters. The boys mother restlessly seeks the help of pundits from the temple, while their father retreats into silent despair - and the bottle. Now Ajay must find the strength of character to navigate this brave new American world, and the sorrows at home, on his own terms.By turns blackly funny, touching, raw and devastating, Family Life is a vivid and wrenching portrait of sibling relationships and the impact of tragedy on one family from a boys eye view.

Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles. As he stood up, he suddenly felt aroused by Mrs Shaws large breasts, boys haircut, and little-girl sneakers. Even her nostrils suggested a frank sexuality. Gopal wanted to put his hands on her waist and pull her toward him. And then he realized that he had.Gopal Mauryas wife has left him, preferring to seek enlightenment in an ashram in India. But when his neighbour comes to borrow his lawnmower, Gopal thinks he might find something similar right here in New Jersey. Armed with Cosmopolitan magazine as his bible, he embarks on a quest for suburban romance.

Ajay Mishra tiene ocho años cuando, a finales de la década de los setenta, él, su hermano mayor y sus padres dejan Delhi para instalarse en Queens, Nueva York, porque a su padre le han ofrecido un trabajo. El aterrizaje de esta familia india de clase media en el paraiso del consumo y los canales de television que emiten las veinticuatro horas les genera un choque cultural que sus miembros digieren en el empeño de adaptarse a su nuevo pais. Tienen grandes esperanzas puestas en el hijo mayor, cuyas excelentes notas le van a permitir estudiar en un prestigioso instituto. Pero un accidente en una piscina que le deja graves secuelas cambia radicalmente el destino de los Mishra y sobre todo el del joven Ajay, a traves de cuyos ojos se relata la historia. El paraiso muestra entonces su cara menos grata, el acoso al diferente en la escuela, la presion economica, la incomprension del entorno..., y la familia esta a punto de desmoronarse. El padre debera afrontar su alcoholismo, la madre tendra que plantearse aceptar un trabajo por debajo de su cualificacion y Ajay soportar la presion de ser tan brillante en los estudios como su hermano. Para el la literatura se acabara convirtiendo en un refugio y en un instrumento para entender y explicar la realidad.

Shortlisted for the Folio Prize 2015.For eight-year-old Ajay and his older brother Birju, life in Delhi in the late 1970s follows a comfortable, predictable routine: bathing on the roof, queuing for milk, playing cricket in the street. Yet, everything changes when their father finds a job in America - a land of carpets and elevators, swimsuits and hot water on tap. Life is exciting for the two brothers as they adjust to prosperity, girls and 24-hour TV, until one hot, sultry day when everything falls apart.Darkly comic, Family Life is a story of a boy torn between duty and survival amid the ruins of everything he once knew.

Ajay Mishra tiene ocho años cuando, a finales de la decada de los setenta, el, su hermano mayor y sus padres dejan Delhi para instalarse en Queens, Nueva York, porque a su padre le han ofrecido un trabajo. El aterrizaje de esta familia india de clase media en el paraiso del consumo y los canales de television que emiten las veinticuatro horas les genera un choque cultural que sus miembros digieren en el empeño de adaptarse a su nuevo pais. Tienen grandes esperanzas puestas en el hijo mayor, cuyas excelentes notas le van a permitir estudiar en un prestigioso instituto. Pero un accidente en una piscina que le deja graves secuelas cambia radicalmente el destino de los Mishra y sobre todo el del joven Ajay, a traves de cuyos ojos se relata la historia. El paraiso muestra entonces su cara menos grata, el acoso al diferente en la escuela, la presion economica, la incomprension del entorno..., y la familia esta a punto de desmoronarse. El padre debera afrontar su alcoholismo, la madre tendra que plantearse aceptar un trabajo por debajo de su cualificacion y Ajay soportar la presion de ser tan brillante en los estudios como su hermano. Para el la literatura se acabara convirtiendo en un refugio y en un instrumento para entender y explicar la realidad.

As he stood up, he suddenly felt aroused by Mrs Shaw's large breasts, boy's haircut, and little-girl sneakers. Even her nostrils suggested a frank sexuality. Gopal wanted to put his hands on her waist and pull her toward him. And then he realized that he had. Gopal Maurya's wife has left him, preferring to seek enlightenment in an ashram in India. But when his neighbour comes to borrow his lawnmower, Gopal thinks he might find something similar right here in New Jersey. Armed with Cosmopolitan magazine as his bible, he embarks on a quest for suburban romance.