Review: Daura: A Novel

Daura: A Novel by Anukrti Upadhyay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Beautiful, mysterious and magical.

This is an extraordinary story. This is no mystery or suspense, and yet it makes you read page after page without stopping. The prose, I wouldn't call it lyrical and yet the story reads, in many parts, like a poem and a song, beautiful, rhythmic, and metaphorical.

I was born and brought up in a town-ish place, meaning I'm not a sophisticated city bred guy nor am I a person of a village with firm roots in culture and folklore. I didn't think I would enjoy this as much, from whatever I gathered from the blurb of the book alone. Although I passionately consume folklore they are not my first preference, fantasy and crime being my favoured delicacies. And yet I can't but stop and salute this work that has moved me to some of my raw emotions. The story and structure reminded me of R.K Narayan (my personal favourite) and Khaled Hosseini in places. Not that it mirrors their structure, but more like it reminded those authors in a subtle way that felt good.

A must read. My review won't do justice to the book. One must read it to enjoy it. I believe someone from Rajasthan would enjoy it better, since there are many words in this text that outsiders wouldn't know. I wish there was a glossary towards the end that could be referred to. Continuous google search made my reading choppy and frustrated me a little.

A must read nevertheless.

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