Beggar¿s Bedlam

A hilarious and absurdist take on the political landscape of West Bengal, India. Beggar-s Bedlam is a surreal novel that unleashes the chaos of the carnival on the familiar. Part literary descendent of Bulgakov-s The Master and Margarita and part a reconstruction of lost Bengali history, Nabarun Bhattacharya-s masterpiece is a jubilant, fizzing wire of subaltern anarchy and insurrection. -Marshall Bhodi Sarkar and his lieutenant Sarkhel-surreptitiously dig on the banks of the Ganges River looking for crude oil reserves. Instead, they unearth curved daggers, rusty broadswords, and a Portuguese cannon. Bhodi is an occasional military man and the lead sorcerer of the secret black-magic sect named Choktar. He joins forces with the flying Flaperoos-men with a predilection for alcohol and petty vandalism-to declare outright war against the Marxist-Leninist West Bengal government. In a bloodless revolution that is fascinating in its utter implausibility, a motley crew of yet more implausible