Ode to Lata

Banker by day and denizen of Los Angeles’ clubs by night, the protagonist of Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla’s groundbreaking, critically-acclaimed novel has left behind a tempestuous childhood in postcolonial Kenya, the mother who raised him on a steady diet of Bollywood cinema, an emotionally abusive bisexual lover, and inescapable memories of his father’s violent death at the hands of a mistress. Passionate and unflinchingly honest, Ode to Lata scavenges the depths of one man’s misguided and relentless search for love in a world of emotionally void encounters and tangled memories. All the while Ali’s story is intertwined with the unraveling of his parents’ own doomed relationship and the film music of Bollywood’s eminent singer, Lata Mangeshkar. And it is this hopelessly romantic music that scores their tormented lives and goads them to pursue love through chaos and ecstasy. This commemorative 10th Anniversary Edition includes Dhalla’s short story, A about a poignant last night between two lovers facing separation.