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Description
I was beating the life out of Bibhuti with a baseball bat when my first monsoon broke…
John Lock has come to India to meet his destiny: a destiny dressed in a white karate suit and sporting an impressive moustache. He has fled the quiet desperation of his life in England: decades wasted in a meaningless job, a marriage foundering in the wake of loss and a terrible secret he cannot bear to share with his wife.
He has come to offer his help to a man who has learned to conquer pain, a world record breaker who specialises in feats of extreme endurance and ill-advised masochism. Bibhuti Nayak's next record attempt – to have fifty baseball bats broken over his body – will set the seal on a career that has seen him rise from poverty to become a minor celebrity in a nation where standing out from the crowd requires tenacity, courage and perhaps a touch of madness. In answering Bibhuti's call for assistance, John hopes to rewrite a brave end to a life poorly lived.
But as they take their leap of faith together, and John is welcomed into Bibhuti's family, and into the colour and chaos of Mumbai – where he encounters ping-pong-playing monks, a fearless seven-year-old martial arts warrior and an old man longing for the monsoon to wash him away – he learns more about life, and death, and everything in between than he could ever have bargained for.
Product details
Published | 13 Aug 2015 |
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Format | Paperback |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 320 |
ISBN | 9789385436116 |
Imprint | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Dimensions | 234 x 153 mm |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
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Man on Fire is astonishingly moving in its heartbreak and humour … Man on Fire does what a novel at its best can do; underneath the humour and pathos and Bibhuti's hopes and dreams, we find an account of India itself. Out of this unlikely material, Stephen Kelman has written a book of profound beauty and deep empathy
Justin Cartwright, Observer
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An original tale about faith, friendship and determination … An enthralling novel by a writer of considerable talent
Financial Times
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A revelatory and very touching book
Observer, Books of the Year 2015
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A glorious opening monologue that manages to be hilarious and sympathetic ... Bibhuti is certainly a wonderful creation who resists prat-falling into reductive buffoonery thanks to Kelman's nicely measured portrait … Man on Fire is a strange, arresting novel that is borne aloft by two vivid protagonists, and threaded together by a delicate chain of imagery … A salutary meditation on time: how we fill it, how we waste is and the tricky challenge of telling the difference
Independent
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Kelman gives an intoxicating picture of Mumbai in all its chaos
Sunday Times Ireland
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Man on Fire, in essence, is like a buddy movie with a spiritual bent; that this spirituality comes from the most unlikely source is its strength
Guardian