Strange Case of Billy Biswas - Arun Joshi

The Strange Case of Billy Biswas

The Strange Case of Billy Biswas is a compellingly thought provoking novel. A novel in which the normal and the abnormal, the ordinary and the extraordinary, illusion and reality, resignation and desire rub shoulders.

The protagonist, Billy Biswas, is a man of extraordinary passions. He has everything going for him — education, wealth, status, travel, and a loving wife. Yet his inner world is rocked by a groundswell of discontent. He is consumed by a restlessness which grows steadily...

Characterised by great elan and sophistication, the narrative unfolds in quick succession, and would be hard to believe were it not related in such a matter of fact, down to earth manner.

Book Review

'One of the best English novels written anywhere in the world… arguably far superior to Rushdie (to whom Indian English writing is said to owe a great debt…' — The Hindu

'In Joshi’s hands we are swept into the unknown…' — The Times Literary Supplement, London

Author

Arun Joshi (1939-1993), son of a botanist and an eminent educationist, was born in Varanasi and educated in India and the U.S. After getting his Masters degree from M.I.T., he returned to India to pursue career in the corporate world. Yet writing remained his passion. In the five novels he wrote he spun out some of the most thought-provoking and outstanding fiction written in the twentieth century Indian literature and firmly established his credentials as a writer of rare talent and sensitivity. 

Book Details