Book Details

• Author: Parimal Bhattacharya

• Publisher: Ababhash

• Language: Bengali

• ISBN: 9789380732688

• Pages: 648

• First Published: January 2025

• Second Print: May 2025

• Format: Paperback

About the Book
Set on the fish-shaped land between the rivers Hugli and Saraswati, this sweeping novel reimagines the ancient port city of Satgaon—once a thriving hub where Arab, Chinese, and European merchants arrived with the seasonal mawsim winds. Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, and French traders established settlements here, shaping a rich cosmopolitan landscape.

At the heart of this world stands a clan of Kanauji Brahmins settled around a temple of Lord Ram. A girl from this clan marries a young archaeologist—an East Bengali refugee—who arrives in Satgaon for a project. Their son, Bappaditya, grows up visiting this magical terrain: a place where myth and memory intermingle with history. Here, church steeples cry in the wind, women exchange sonic messages through ritual river-baths, scholars are cursed into toads, a Parisian poet finds his “flower of evil,” a Turkish warrior stays back to learn Sanskrit, and even departed souls return—one reincarnated as a Javanese cockatoo.

Spanning seven hundred years, nine generations, and forty-nine major characters—including a cockatoo, a horse, and a Harley Davidson motorbike—the novel weaves history, myth, and imagination into an extraordinary narrative tapestry. When a new law threatens to uproot Bappaditya from this enchanted enclave, the question arises: can an affidavit stitched together from strands of memory, legend, and history safeguard his belonging?

A monumental work of storytelling, this 648-page paperback stands as one of the most ambitious novels in contemporary Bengali literature.