Book cover of The Spider

Book description

A tale of mercenaries and myths, set amid the political turmoil of Bengal.

In the largely undocumented sphere of political violence in eastern India, Qadir the Spider is a mythological killer and casanova, known for the various assassinations and liaisons he carries out across the region. His oldest son Rahim…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Spider as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

The Spider is a fantastic evocation of communal violence in India seen through the prism of family. That sounds like many Indian novels but at its heart, the relationship between a Bengali hitman father and his son who is being broken into the family business with all expected and unexpected attendant cruelties is a great reflection of where India is at in the age of autocracy and cut throat politics. This short novel is also extremely well written, I plowed through it in one setting.

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