Shameless by Taslima Nasreen

The textual tension between the real and the imaginary nourishes and complicates the narrative . . . Shameless exposes the hypocrisies of Kolkata, the distrust and hatred that exists between the [Hindu and Muslim] communities. ‘ — Ashutosh Bhardwaj, award-winning writer and journalist  ‘Shameless is a far more marinated novel than its predecessor . . .  The emotional seesaw between the creator and her creations gives the plot a cerebral intensity . . . Nasreen distils hard-hitting truth through her lived experiences, transforming her individual predicament to strike a universal chord through her deft storytelling. ‘– Somak Ghoshal, Livemint   ‘My name is Suranjan. You don’t recognize me? You wrote a novel about me. It was called Lajja. ‘ One day in Calcutta, Taslima suddenly finds herself face to face with Suranjan, the principal character from her controversial novel Lajja. Persecuted in their native Bangladesh, Suranjan and his family have, like Taslima, moved to the city across the border. But is life for a Hindu family from an Islamic nation any better in a country where a majority of the population happens to be Hindu? Leading poor, unmoored lives, exploited and frustrated at every step of the way, and always carrying with them the memories of a scarred communal history, Suranjan and so many others like him seem to lead incomplete lives in their so-called ‘safe haven’. Shameless, the explosive sequel to Lajja, is an uncompromising, heart-breaking look at ordinary people’s lives in our troubled times.