Axel: An MC Romance (Untamed Hell fire's MC Book 1)

From Kirkus Reviews From the Toronto-based Mistry (Such a Long Journey, 1991), a splendid tale of contemporary India that, in chronicling the sufferings of outcasts and innocents trying to survive in the State of Internal Emergency'' of the 1970s, grapples with the great question of how to live in the face of death and despair. Though Mistry is too fine a writer to indulge in polemics, this second novel is also a quietly passionate indictment of a corrupt and ineluctably cruel society. India under Indira Gandhi has become a country ruled by thugs who maim and kill for money and power. The four protagonists (all victims of the times) are: Dina, 40-ish, poor and widowed after only three years of marriage; Maneck, the son of an old school friend of Dina's; and two tailors, Ishvar and his nephew Om, members of the Untouchable caste. For a few months, this unlikely quartet share a tranquil happiness in a nameless city--a city of squalid streets teeming with beggars, where politicians, in the name of progress, abuse the poor and the powerless. Dina, whose dreams of attending college ended when her father died, is now trying to support herself with seamstress work; Maneck, a tenderhearted boy, has been sent to college because the family business is failing; and the two tailors find work with Dina. Though the four survive encounters with various thugs and are saved from disaster by a quirky character known as the Beggarmaster, the times are not propitious for happiness. On a visit back home, Om and Ishvar are forcibly sterilized; Maneck, devastated by the murder of an activist classmate, goes abroad. But Dina and the tailors, who have learned to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair,'' keep going. A sweeping story, in a thoroughly Indian setting, that combines Dickens's vivid sympathy for the poor with Solzhenitsyn's controlled outrage, celebrating both the resilience of the human spirit and the searing heartbreak of failed dreams. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Review ''Astonishing. . . . A rich and varied spectacle, full of wisdom and laughter and the touches of the unexpectedly familiar through which literature illuminates life.'' --_Wall Street Journal ''A serious and important work . . . the product of high intelligence and passionate conviction.'' -- New York Review of Books ''Monumental. . . . Few have caught the real sorrow and inexplicable strength of India, the unaccountable crookedness and sweetness, as well as Mistry.'' --Pico Iyer, Time ''Those who continue to harp on the decline of the novel . . . ought to consider Rohinton Mistry. He needs no infusion of magic realism to vivify the real. The real world, through his eyes, is magical.'' -- The New York Times_ At a time of political turmoil, the lives of four strangers collide. Rohinton Mistry’s epic masterpiece is set in India in the 1970s."Astonishing... A rich and varied spectacle, full of wisdom and laughter and the touches of the unexpectedly familiar through which literature illuminates life." - The Wall Street Journal"You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair." In an unnamed city by the sea in mid-1970s India, a State of Internal Emergency has been declared. In the tiny flat of the widowed Dina Dalal, Ishvar and Omprakash Darji, tailors who have been forced from their village into the city, and Maneck Kohlah, a young student from a hill station near the Himalayas, are painfully constructing new lives, which become entwined in circumstances no one could have foreseen."Those who continue to harp on the decline of the novel... ought to consider Rohinton Mistry. He needs no infusion of magic realism to vivify the real. The real world, through his eyes, is magical." - The New York TimesRohinton Mistry is the author of three novels, all of which have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and a collection of short stories. His first novel, Such a Long Journey was made into an acclaimed feature film in 1998. Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2009, he was shortlisted for The Man Booker International Prize in 2011, and winner of the 2012 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry’s Stunning Internationally Acclaimed Bestseller, Is Set In Mid-1970s India. It Tells The Story Of Four Unlikely People Whose Lives Come Together During A Time Of Political Turmoil Soon After The Government Declares A “state Of Internal Emergency.” Through Days Of Bleakness And Hope, Their Circumstances – And Their Fates – Become Inextricably Linked In Ways No One Could Have Foreseen. Mistry’s Prose Is Alive With Enduring Images And A Cast Of Unforgettable Characters. Written With Compassion, Humour, And Insight, A Fine Balance Is A Vivid, Richly Textured, And Powerful Novel Written By One Of The Most Gifted Writers Of Our Time. From The Hardcover Edition. A portrait of India featuring four characters. Two are tailors who are forcibly sterilized, one is a student who emigrates, and the fourth is a widowed seamstress who decides to hang on. A tale of cruelty, political thuggery and despair by an Indian from Toronto, author of Such a Long Journey