The Blue Bedspread

In a house on a narrow Calcutta street, lit by the half-light of a yellow street lamp, lies a baby, one day old, wrapped in its hospital towel. In the next room sits a man, all alone, writing. Who is this man, at once frightened and determined? What is he writing? Where has the baby come from and where will it go? Tonight, these questions will be answered when the man unravels the dark secrets he has carried all his life. 'A ghostly, elliptical piece of prose of quite magical quality, which tells the story of one man's reconciliation with his past. It is spare and yet richly patterned ... It is undeniably powerful' Edward Marriott, Evening Standard 'The Blue Bedspread is written in a style which is intimate and full of stillness. The story itself is deeply compelling and shocking' Colm Toibin 'If you want to get ahead of the literary game this year, practise getting your jaws around the following syllables: Raj Kamal Jha ... precise yet bewitching prose' Peter Popham, Independent on Sunday 'A grand work of images and words, a rich depiction of a drying, derelict world which shadow people - extraordinary in their ordinariness - inhabit' Indrajit Hazra, Asian Age 'Mesmerizing. An unnerving, erotic puzzle that works through exquisite and excruciating glimpses ... It struck me as that rare treat: a truly unusual read' Andrea Ashworth, author of Once in a House on Fire