Fiction. Middle Eastern Studies. Edited by Altaf Tyrewala, MUMBAI NOIR includes brand-new stories by Annie Zaidi, R. Raj Rao, Abbas Tyrewala, Avtar Singh, Ahmed Bunglowala, Smita Harish Jain, Sonia Faleiro, Altaf Tyrewala, Namita Devidayal, Jerry Pinto, Kalpish Ratna, Riaz Mulla, Paromita Vohra, and Devashish Makhija. Today, Mumbai is like any other Asian city on the rise, with gigantic construction cranes winding atop upcoming skyscrapers and malls. Right-wing violence, failing electricity and water supplies, overcrowding, and the ever-looming threat of terrorist attacks—these are some of the gruesome ground realities that Mumbai's middle and working classes must deal with every day, while the city's super-rich zip from roof to roof in their private choppers. Abandoned by its wealthy, mistreated by its politicians and administrators, Mumbai continues to thrive primarily because of the helpless resilience of its hardworking, upright citizens. The stories in MUMBAI NOIR depict the many ways in which the city's ever-present shadowy aspects often force themselves onto the lives of ordinary people. What emerges is the sense of a city that, despite its new name and triumphant tryst with capitalism, is yet to heal from the wounds of the early 1990s, and from all the subsequent acts of havoc wreaked within its precincts by both local and outside forces.

Author City: MUMBAI IND

Altaf Tyrewala was born in Mumbai and studied in New York. He is the author of the acclaimed novel No God in Sight, which was published across the world, and he edited the fiction anthology MUMBAI NOIR (Akashic Books, 2012). His short stories have been included in numerous Indian and international anthologies and magazines. He was awarded the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Literature Grant for 2011.

Reviews and Other Links
Publishers Weekly