The Shadow Lines The Penguin Premium Classic Edition

It is difficult to start this book due to non-linear timeline and very unusual narrative style, but once you get through that it becomes much easier.

The book arrived in good condition. :)The paperback cover is not a thick one for this book.Reviews on Gosh's other works are available on the last few pages.The novel was boring in the beginning. Soon as I got engaged further into the story, it left me sorrowful for a historical period I do not know personally but have heard (Partition stories) from my grandparents and father.Narration technique is much complex owing to a modern paradigm of Indian writing in English as it was with Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things.Also, the story gets much more amusing that maintains a balance with the shock of an ending. The mystery is not to be realized and known until much later, until nothing can be done.

A stunning narrative that flies through time. Deep and interesting characters of different generation and origin that together show that borders and distances mean nothing.The simple, innocent and free and fun narrative style of the book makes it easy to understand and difficult to leave.This book will surely give you a new and better perspective. Loved every bit of it, a real treat.

Awesome read

Though I have bought the book for the sole pupose of my Under Graduation, it has helped me in understanding the perspectives and circumstances surrounding a partition and how it affected different people. Really loved the narrative and the way Amitav Ghosh has potrayed the impact of partition on different individuals is in one word stunning.As for the quality of the pages, it is good.

It was my first time reading Amitav Ghosh and I had no expectations. I had recently read a few books and realised that being sad is the norm and happiness is just a good surprise we get from time to time. This book is that good surprise. I am now looking forward to read more of his work.I am half way through the book and don't seem to put it down except just to marvel at the prose style. It is simple and evokes the sense of understanding in the reader. I felt as if I am there to look at both sides of the coin which I created in my head, with London then & now. You realise that how the author had differentiate the London as seen by Mayadebi and later, by her daughter. The freedom it provides from the culture binds & norms in our country.At one point, while reading about author's heartbreak, I did not sympathize but empathize. I am liking it and hope to find myself more enamoured as it ends.

I bought this book for academic purposes but I stayed for the writing style and fell in love with it. For people who are starting this, I suggest do not take breaks and read it in one go or you might lose interest for the story doesnt have a chronological order. The book arrived in perfect condition. No complaints whatsoever. ✨️

No complaint about the storyline or storytelling. A masterpiece by Amitav Ghosh. But the book is a pirated version of the original item. Terrible printing and page quality.

Such clear and beautiful writing. So imaginative.

If you are ready to get an insight into the Indian postcolonial situation through a novel this is a safe option. This book, unfolds itself into a crazy and abstract time narrative and it will make you loose yourself into wondering how you ended up where you ended up. Amitav Gosh successfully moved away from the other kinds of postcolonial narratives that have been created. It gives a whole new perspective to the role of imagination in nation-building.I gave it three stars because isolated from the postcolonial critique and looking at it solely as a novel, it is not my favorite not very captivating.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this, but I found myself pleasantly surprised. The narrator almost plays the role of the intellectual omniscient and while this can seem unrealistic at times it opens up the novel to extremely compelling criticisms. The novel strives for anthropological unity through a combination of this intelligence and the heartfelt passion that is juxtaposed against the horrifying consequences of colonial movements. I cannot recommend this book enough just for the meaning that the reader will surmise within the last fifty pages. It is a logical discrepancy in the world, which I have often questioned and thought about. This novel made me more conscious of these thoughts and reassured my beliefs. Certainly, the ideas behind The Shadow Lines may not be original, but they are adroitly conveyed and truly change your perspective on the philosophy of unity. I found myself even remembering all of the characters names and not feeling alienated but actually being able to relate to aspects of the narrator's childhood, despite the novels groundings in India. I think even this detail was calculated by Ghosh who makes sure to encompass a variety of places and countries within this memorable and succinct novel. The only complaint I can really come up with is that the novel's ending feels unfulfilled, based on its potential, and only vaguely corresponds to the themes Ghosh promotes throughout. As well, I could pull out the pretentious "sequestered narrator" card, but some of the best literature relies on this method and I can't completely discount it, especially when it embellishes themes of alienation and isolation.

El libro no me dijo mucho...está escrito en una prosa lenta y aunque la historia tiene tramos interesantes, la forma en que está escrita me pareció aburrida.

I could really not understand about the first 50 pages of this book, but when I finally realized what the author was doing, I understood it and really enjoyed it, and hate to see the book end. Amitav Ghosh is a great and talented writer, and quite inventive in how he intertwines so many characters from so many unlikely places. Before reading this book, if you are a novice to India's history during and after the partition, then you might want to study some of that before reading this book since all the characters revolve around this one time in history and the affect the partition had in the lives of those characters. I love Ghosh's writing, and have ordered several of his other books to enjoy as well.