The City of Devi

A Novel

By: Manil Suri

Narrated by: Vikas Adam, Priya Ayyar

A dazzling, multilayered novel that not only encompasses a searing love story but, with its epic reach from quarks to mythology to geopolitics, also encapsulates the fate of the entire world.

As Mumbai empties under the threat of imminent nuclear annihilation, Sarita, a 33-year-old statistician, can only think of one thing: being reunited with Karun, her physicist husband. Why has he vanished? Who is he running from? How will they form the family of three he’s always wanted? To find him, Sarita must journey across the surreal landscape of a near-abandoned city, braving gangs of competing Hindu and Muslim hoodlums. Joining her is Jaz - nominally a Muslim but whose true religion has always been sex with other men.

Danger lurks around every corner, but so does the incongruous and the absurd: the patron goddess Devi Ma has even materialized on a beach to save her city from harm. Sarita’s search leads her to this beach, thrusting her into a trinity so mercurial, so consuming, that it will alter her life more fundamentally than any apocalypse to come.

Fearlessly provocative, wickedly comedic, and propelled with rocket-fuel energy, The City of Devi exuberantly upends assumptions of politics, religion, sex, and India's global emergence.

©2013 Manil Suri (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc

Critic reviews

"The City of Devi combines, in a magician's feat, the thrill of Bollywood with the pull of a thriller. Set in a city at the brink of the end, this is a fiercely imagined story of three souls haunted by a love that will change their most elemental ideas of identity. Manil Suri's bravest and most passionate book." (Kiran Desai, Man Booker Prize-winning author)

"The novel is driven by love and hope…. Suri’s dynamic, unabashed voice leaves one for the most part happily, perpetually off-balance." (Publishers Weekly)

Not a conventional Indian novel

Would you consider the audio edition of The City of Devi to be better than the print version?

Yes, Vikas Adam did a really good job of reading the book - capturing the voices and accents of different characters.. entertaining and captivating.

A bad risk

What disappointed you about The City of Devi?

There's an inherent risk in trading your credits for stories. This story was failed risk.

Normally, with a printed book, I give the author three chapters. I listened to this story for four plotless hours...it was naught but of a description of a woman wandering around war torn Mumbai, searching for her husband with flashbacks about how they met.

I became impatient to hear the author wander somewhere near a plot, so I skipped ahead to the second part of the Audible book. I found the material there uncompelling as well.

I fail to see how this story could be put in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category. It seemed to me to be a project from a Creative Writing class that lived too long. There was lots of sensual description, but little story.

Not What I Expected

This book surprised me. It definitely went down paths I did not anticipate. Yes, this is a story about an Indian woman (Sarita) trying to find her husband (Karun) in a pre apocalyptic world. But more than that this is a love story between Sarita and Karun, and Jazz (a man) and Karun. We learn in great detail how both these relationships develop. So this may not be a book for everyone. But for me, I became invested in all the characters right away and had to find out how it ended. I thought the author did a great job at writing the emotion, the passion, and turmoil for both these relationships. The book also explores Indian culture, traditions and the conflict between Hindu and Muslim. We are also introduced to a colorful cast of characters. The narrators did an excellent job as well, and the editing was flawless, no loud breaths to distract the listener.

TRIADS

India vs Pakistan, Hindu vs Moslem, 3 characters looking for love when life itself is such a challenge. Manil Suri takes on a road trip that gives us war, love, religion, lots of criminals of every stripe and evolving true love that expresses itself as the physical nature of love takes second place in the lives of three consenting adults. I felt that Priyas' narration is not top quality. Vikas Adam is excellent.

Cheap

What disappointed you about The City of Devi?

Cheap sex theatrics to make the story more engaging. Skip the sex and the story would have been interesting on its own.

What could Manil Suri have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Focus more on the post-apocolyptic story line, and less on weird sex.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Interesting perspective on war in the Middle East.

Any additional comments?

I finished listening to it because I wanted to see how the story ended with the characters, but would not recommend the book.