Shining Hero (42 page)

The boy frowned slightly. ‘I am
your
son,’ he said.

Bika’s mother rushed forward. ‘What he tells is true. Everyone says Abhimanyu looks just like you and not like any pony syce. Come, Bika, tell him.’

‘Every day I would think, after that love we made together, you would call for me,’ said Bika.

‘It took her six years to realise that you had forgotten her,’ said Lakshmi. Her tone was bitter.

Bika had started crying. ‘For six years she has tried to make me come to you, but I would not do it because I thought that somewhere inside you, you must feel love for me as I feel for you and that when you were ready you would come.’

Poopay let out a sound that was only half mirth. Bika glared at her then said to Arjuna, ‘But now I can see you have forgotten me entirely and that night meant nothing at all to you so I have come to you to demand you take responsibility for this child who is your son.’ She suddenly burst out sobbing. ‘I can’t do it, Ma. This kind of tricking is wrong no matter what he has done.’

‘Silence, Bika,’ roared her mother.

‘You see what it is like to be famous,’ laughed Dilip Baswani. ‘Your children will be cropping up every single week from now on.’

‘An unsentimental yet extremely moving tale of sibling rivalry. Banerji’s success is in the creation of two heroes who, despite their glaring flaws, are sympathetic. This is a stunning novel, rich in human experience and fascinating mythology, but beautifully written too, with flashes of irony and humour to lighten the deeper pathos.’

Tablet

‘Banerji handles set pieces ranging from the Calcutta underworld to the heights of the Himalayas, but she is best at the small significant detail – Karna, introduced to luxury by his success in commercials, sitting by his gleaming new telephone, stroking it and waiting for it to ring.’

The Times

‘A quite remarkable book that takes the reader through the various layers of Indian society, stopping at the mighty river that rules all lives, the squalid city rubbish dumps, the lavish home of the local landowner, the drug dealer’s den and eventually the snow-capped Himalayan mountains, which feature in the final battle scene of so many Bollywood films.’

Oxford Times

‘Sara Banerji is a natural-born storyteller.
Shining Hero
enthrals with its punchy, exciting narrative. It is a gripping read, the kind of book that is impossible to put down. Banerji has a wonderful prose style – her writing is fluid and confident and extremely imaginative. She knows how to meld shimmering prose with rollicking, high-powered adventure, making
Shining Hero
vivid, dramatic and entertaining.’

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