In her kaleidoscopic debut novel, Oindrila Mukherjee brings the fictional Indian metropolis of Hrishipur to vivid life. Located in northern India, Hrishipur is a younger metropolis, dwelling to migrants on the lookout for work, elite professionals dazzled by the glittering nightlife and ultrawealthy enterprise house owners trying to find the subsequent large deal. With luxurious malls, unique residence complexes and crowded streets, it’s a place of dizzying extremes.
The Dream Builders unfolds over the course of one scorching, dry summer time. Maneka Roy, a college professor who’s been residing within the U.S. since school, returns dwelling to go to her father after her mom’s sudden demise. Her mother and father moved to Hrishipur from their native Kolkata, investing in a single of many new development tasks that by no means materialized. Now her retired father is struggling to make ends meet, and Maneka is confronted with a metropolis that’s as overseas to her because the American Midwest as soon as was.
But Maneka and her father are simply two of the ten characters whose lives and tales intersect in The Dream Builders. There’s additionally Ramona, Maneka’s rich childhood buddy, who has simply purchased a flat within the greatest new development in Hrishipur: Trump Towers. There’s Jessica, a single mom with an adopted daughter, and Gopal, an electrician fueled by gritty dedication. In different chapters, a husband longs to reconnect along with his spouse, a spa employee worries about her household’s monetary state of affairs, and a photographer desires of his large break. Mukherjee strikes simply from one level of view to the subsequent, highlighting the cultural, class and gender variety of town.
All of these characters are hiding from themselves, one another, their pasts and futures. They could also be neighbors, associates, lovers, employers and workers, however their desires, wishes and wounds are usually not instantly obvious to at least one one other. They solely ever see different individuals in bits and items, which regularly results in misguided assumptions in regards to the relative ease or hardship of one other individual’s life. This dissonance provides the novel its richness and propulsive movement. Although Mukherjee lingers in every perspective for under a chapter, her characters are so particular, so instantly human, that they continue to be resolutely current lengthy after the narrative has moved on.
The Dream Builders is a chic, intimate story about individuals adrift in a chaotic metropolis, an unpredictable financial system and a quickly altering world. They lengthy for dwelling, belonging, stability and luxury, struggling to root themselves at the same time as the bottom shifts beneath them. In the areas between their tales, Mukherjee invitations readers to unknot the deeper echoes and connections that make this fantastically structured novel such a powerful debut.
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