THE VICKS MANGO TREE

A few months after a state of Emergency has been clamped on India, Raj Iyer, a fledgling journalist living in the alley of the Vicks mango tree, goes underground, to resurface some years later in a corner of the Municipal Park as a bronze statue. No one’s sure exactly why he has become so famous, though there is talk of a book being written on him, which hails him as a modern hero of Mangobaag.

The Vicks Mango Tree is the story of the tiny fictional region of Mangobaag – and India – as she limps through twenty-one months of suspended civil liberties, half-hearted revolts and stern censorships. It is also the tale of Teacher Bhatt, Rabia Sheik and Shankar Iyer, ordinary people in pursuit of their middle-class dreams, and local legends like Maharaja Muneer Shah, Miss Myna and Dr Abid Ali, who live and die in the dying light of a glorious past.

Full of odd characters and piquant situations, and alive with the politics and possibilities of a not-so-long-ago time in India’s history, The Vicks Mango Tree is a compelling first novel.