It's the first day of Ramadan in heat-soaked Bangalore. A young man begins to dress: makeup, a sari, and expensive pearl earrings. Before the mirror he is transformed into Bhuvana. She is a hijra, a transgender seeking love in the bazaars of the city.
What Bhuvana wants, she nearly gets: a passing man is attracted to this elusive young woman—but someone points out that Bhuvana is no woman. For that, the interloper's throat is cut. A case for Inspector Borei Gowda, going to seed, and at odds with those around him including his wife, his colleagues, even the informers he must deal with. More corpses and Urmila, Gowda's ex-flame, are added to this spicy concoction of a mystery novel.
Most intriguing is the grim world of Bhuvana. Her hijra fantasies, emotions, and hopes are etched in a way that is chilling yet oddly touching. Some mysteries remain till almost the end, for instance Bhuvana's connection with the wealthy, corrupt Corporator Ravikumar, who lives in a mansion as grand as the Mysore Palace and controls whole districts of Bangalore.
Praise for Anita Nair
"Nair writes big, brave descriptions of one brutal murder after the next, relentlessly describing each death even as sub-inspector Santosh loses his breakfast over them. At the crux of every great mystery novel is that penny-drop moment where the revelation leaves you cold with shock. In Cut Like Wound, the penny hits you on your head like a golf ball." --Time Out
"'Once I've created a character, I step into their shoes',says Nair who admits to an element of wish fulfillment with Gowda. 'Here's a character who can do all the things I can't. He rides a Bullet motorcycle and can get p*** drunk - all those things that one part of me won't allow me to do.' A confirmed detective fiction junkie, you hope the author hurries up with the next installment. It's torture to wait two years for any man; it's even worse if he's as interesting as Inspector Borei Gowda." --Hindustan Times
'I loved this book and was constantly gripped. Anita Nair's writing in some moments has photographic qualities, in others the precision of surgeon's scalpel; and always the great inner warmth of the human heart. Truly astounding writing.' --Peter James
'Nair is a feminist and highly regarded Indian novelist, this is... as startling a debut crime novel as you are likely to read this year... This is a troubling novel about men and sexual identity, ending with a shattering and unexpected revelation.' -
--The Sunday Times
Her novel Ladies Coupe, first published in the US ten years ago by St. Martin's Griffin, is a feminist classic which has been published in thirty languages all over the world.
The Daily Telegraph called it 'one of the most important feminist novels to come out of South India'. The movie adaptation of her previous book, Lessons in Forgetting, has just won the Indian national award for the best feature film in English language, and an Indian language film based on this new book is already being discussed.
Anita Nair has never shied away from the darker underside of life but Cut Like Wound is a new departure for her into noir and literary crime. St Martin's Press has recently published her latest novel, The Lilac House, in the US.
www.anitanair.net
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