Home Book Reviews Book Review: City of Incident by Annie Zaidi

Book Review: City of Incident by Annie Zaidi

Swapna Peri

681

Book Title: City of Incident: A Novel in Twelve Parts

Author: Annie Zaidi

Format: Kindle

Published By: Aleph Book Company

ISBN & Edition: B09PRJ6P48 & 1st

Genre: Fiction

No.of pages: 144

Rating: 3/5

About the Book

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The City of Incident tells the story of six women and six men, each of them struggling to keep their balance in a metropolis that affords them little power, little hope, and little chance of redemption. Their stories twine together to give us an unsettling look into the lives that take place on the peripheries of our vision. The characters’ lives in the City of Incident coalesce into a great darkened lens that presents an unnerving view of a great city and its most powerless inhabitants.

About the Author

Annie Zaidi is the author of Gulab, Love Stories # 1–14, and Known Turf: Bantering with Bandits and Other True Tales, which was shortlisted for the Crossword Book Prize (non-fiction). She is the editor of Unbound: 2,000 Years of Indian Women’s Writing. She won The Hindu Playwright Award in 2018 for her play Untitled 1 and the Nine Dots prize in 2019 for her essay ‘Bread, Cement, Cactus’. Her novel Prelude to a Riot won the TATA Literature Live! Book of the Year Award—Fiction in 2020.

What to Expect

Expect a story that talks about the lives of various people in the city of Mumbai.
Expect a story that describes the fabric of varied lifestyles, incidents and issues faced.
Expect a story that transports the readers to the never-sleeping city of Mumbai.

Who can read

This work of fiction by author Annie Zaidi though looks very simple; the layers in the story are the differentiating points. For the language used in the content in the book, this book is for all those fiction lovers who look for common stories told in a novel manner.

Book Review:

This small book has many things to understand, learn and observe. Every part of the twelve parts shows the survival instincts and the countless ways to lead a meaningful life. Author Zaidi picks up beautifully feathered lives for her readers. The narration of certain realistic events in life is explained beautifully. This second book that I have read from the author certainly is a good recommendation.

How is the Narration

The narration is lively and attractive. The story is not to delve deeper into the lives but to understand the merging of the city, its color, and the people’s psyches. As the tag line in the title suggests, the story is into 12 parts. Each part has its own vibe.

About the Characters

This makes the most interesting and exciting part of the book. There are characters in every part of the story. The characters belong to varied lifestyles, economic status, societal status, etc. Every character is written with ample space, strength, and scope.

Writing Style

Compared to the author’s other book – Prelude to a Riot, this book’s writing has a distinctive style and is on par with some of the classical writers. Here, the author believed that not many descriptions and discussions of certain things would make sense to the story. In this connection, she touches on many themes with her easy and accessible writing style.