Capital : a portrait of twenty-first century Delhi

Compelling And Insightful Biography Of A Critically Important Megacity, And The Effects Of Sudden And All-consuming Capitalist Transformation Stunning Literary Non-fiction From The Author Of Solo, Winner Of The Commonwealth Writers' Prize In 2010 Through Interviews With The City's Rich, Super-rich And Disenfranchised, Rana Dasgupta Creates A Thoughtful And Fascinating Portrait Of A New India Beyond Mumbai And The Glamour Of Bollywood, Capital Is A Timely Look At The Present And Ever-changing Future Of One Of The World's Most Dynamic Cities Rana Dasgupta's Non-fiction, Delivered With The Empathy And Flair Of A Novelist, Will Change The Way You See Delhi And Its People ‘the Most Unexpected And Original Indian Writer Of His Generation.’ Salman Rushdie For Fans Of Katherine Boo's Behind The Beautiful Forevers, Suketu Mehta's Maximum City And Peter Ackroyd An Absorbing Read For Armchair Travellers, Politics Readers And Cultural Studies Enthusiasts Dasgupta tells the story of Delhi's journey from Walled City to World City, capturing the astonishing and sometimes terrifying transformation of the city through a series of conversations with its residents, from billionaires to slum dwellers. At the turn of the twenty-first century, acclaimed novelist Rana Dasgupta arrived in Delhi with a single suitcase. He had no intention of staying for long. But the city beguiled him - he 'fell in love and in hate with it' - and fourteen years later, Delhi is still his home. Fourteen years of break-neck change. The boom following the opening up of India's economy plunged Delhi into a tumult of destruction and creation: slums and markets were ripped down, and shopping malls and apartment blocks erupted from the ruins. But the transformation was stern, abrupt and fantastically unequal, and it gave rise to strange and bewildering feelings. The city brimmed with ambition and rage. Bizarre crimes stole the headlines. In Capital , we see Delhi through the eyes of its people. With the lyricism and empathy of a novelist, Dasgupta takes us through a series of encounters - with billionaires and bureaucrats, drug dealers and metal traders, slum dwellers and psychoanalysts - which plunge us into Delhi's intoxicating, and sometimes terrifying, story of capitalist transformation. Interweaving over a century of history with his personal journey, he presents us with the first literary portrait of one of the twenty-first century's fastest-growing megalopolises - a dark and uncanny portrait that gives us insights, too, as to the nature of our own - everyone's - shared, global future