The Village

by Nikita Lalwani

Ray, a young British-Asian woman arrives in the afternoon heat of a small village in India. She has come to live there for several months to make a documentary about the place. For this is no ordinary Indian village - the women collecting water at the well, the men chopping wood in the early morning light have all been found guilty of murder. The village is an open prison. Ray is accompanied by two British colleagues and, as the days pass, they begin to get closer to the lives of the inhabitants of the village. And then it feels too close. As the British visitors become desperate for a story, the distinction between innocence and guilt, between good intentions and horrifying results becomes horribly blurred.

Set in a village modelled on a real-life open prison in India, The Village is a gripping story about manipulation and personal morality, about how truly frail our moral judgement can be. Nikita Lalwani has written a dazzling, heartfelt and disturbing novel which delivers on all the promise of her first.

Genres: Fiction, India, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Indian Literature, Adult Fiction, Adult

243 pages, Hardcover

First published June 7, 2012

About the author

Nikita Lalwani‘s work has been translated into sixteen languages. Her first novel, 'Gifted' – the story of a child prodigy of Indian origin growing up in Wales – was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award and won the inaugural Desmond Elliott Prize for Fiction. Her second, 'The Village', was modelled on a real-life ‘prison village’ in northern India, and won a Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize. Her third novel 'You People' (2020), follows Tuli (the proprietor of an Italian restaurant) and his employee Shan who, having fled the Sri Lankan civil war, is desperate to find his family.

Reviews

[Nicola L · Rating 2 out of 5]

The eye-catching cover of this novel was for me, ultimately the best part about it. I really struggled to maintain any interest in the plot and I thoroughly disliked all of the characters. Though the book poses some interesting questions and examines some very thought-provoking themes throughout, I found its pace to be ploddingly slow and the story as a whole, incredibly dry, which is a shame as its premise sounded really appealing.

Ray, an Asian-British film-maker arrives at a small Indian village with her BBC colleagues in tow, in order to make a documentary about life experienced there. The village in question is no ordinary one however; it is actually an open-prison, its inmates all found guilty of murder, yet now able to live with their families in a very different sort of community. As Ray and her colleagues begin to make the film and become ensconced in the life there, the boundaries slowly become blurred and she is forced to question what will make a good story, whilst examining her own morals.

I really wanted to like this book; it sounded genuinely fascinating and indeed some of the scene-setting is very well-done. It paints a very detailed picture of life in the fictional village of Ashwer and of the varied struggles faced by the community. I just found all of the characters to be so incredibly flat and unlikeable that I could not become invested in their lives. The lead protagonist, Ray, is inherently irritating and idealistic and tries her best to fit in with everyone she meets, but is unable to, caught between cultures and though Indian, is perceived to be a ‘whitey’ by the villagers. I realise that the way she is written was deliberate on the part of the author, but Ray generally, made for such a dull story. The other two BBC colleagues are spiteful and seem to have absolutely no conscience. The Indian characters by contrast, appear to be just ‘extras’ in a story. Though we find out a lot about their lives and the crimes they have committed, they have no real sense of personality and become mere cardboard cut-outs, which is a shame. The small parts of the plots when they are focused on were by far the strongest aspects of this story for me.

The foremost feeling that I took away from this book was sadly one of boredom. I only finished reading it out of a sense of obligation to Netgalley and the publishers.

[Gabriela Kozhuharova · Rating 2 out of 5]

„Селото“ на убийците: http://azcheta.com/seloto-nikita-lalv...

„Селото“ не е обемен роман, но въпреки това се чете доста бавно. Лалвани пише някак вглъбено, стилът ѝ е по-нестандартен и изисква малко повече съсредоточване. Нищо не е поднесено на тепсия, а някои моменти направо те карат да се питаш: „Това случи ли се е наистина, или само така ми се стори?“ Освен това тегне така любимата ми атмосфера на очакване лошото нещо да се случи. От самото начало е ясно, че хората от селото няма да получат достойното отразяване, което заслужават. Конфликтът между членовете на снимачния екип назрява бавно и в търпеливо очакване настроенията да ескалират.

Именно тук обаче се получи разминаването с очакванията ми. Докато четях, „Селото“ бавно се превръщаше в класически пример за една невероятно интригуваща идея, изпълнена по разочароващ за мен начин. Решението на Никита Лалвани да задълбае не толкова в самата същност на затвора, колкото в противоречията на тримата си далеч не толкова интересни герои, ме озадачи. Не исках селото да е фон за драмите на тримата персонажи, исках то да е в центъра на сюжета и да науча колкото може повече за него и за обитателите му. Блърбовете, с които са обсипани четирите корици на книгата, описват история, която копнеех да прочета, но тя просто не е тази, написана от Никита Лалвани.

[Leah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unlikeable characters in an unfocused book…

This is one of those books that I so wanted to like but simply couldn’t. A BBC crew filming a documentary in an experimental prison village in India promised drama and emotion in an interesting location. Instead we have stereotyped and cardboard protagonists, a group of indistinguishable prisoners trotting out their clichéd sad stories of injustice on demand and, despite every piece of landscape, clothing and food being described in minute and sometimes florid detail, absolutely no sense of place.

There are three in the film crew. Serena is the uncaring, unfeeling professional who is only interested in making the film dramatic and doesn’t care who gets hurt along the way. The presenter Nathan, macho chauvinist and egoist, could not possibly be any more stereotyped. Shallow, unlikeable and unconvincing as these two are though, they pale into insignificance beside our chief protagonist, Ray. Of Indian descent, she wants to fit into this culture she is visiting, but honestly I can’t imagine Ray fitting in anywhere successfully. Annoying, unprofessional, self-obsessed and very, very tedious, Ray is liked by no-one – neither villagers, nor colleagues, nor indeed me. At one point Serena says to her ‘You are one draining piece of work, you know that? Dealing with you is like walking through cement.’ I agree, but it made me wonder – if the author sees that her main protagonist is this annoying, why does she believe the reader will be able to empathise with her in any way? It’s not as if she is changed by her experiences; there’s no growth or character development which, had it happened, may have given the book the much-needed focus and point that it lacked.

I haven’t bothered to mention the Indian characters because the author failed to give any of them a well-rounded and distinctive personality. They are ciphers - there merely to provide a hazy and undefined background for Ray to play out her internal angst against. The writing itself is technically proficient – i.e. grammatical – but the endless repeated descriptions ultimately convey nothing. Yes, they dress differently; yes, they’re not white (!); yes, they eat different food…but none of this gives any sense of what life is like for the villagers, what their thoughts and feelings might be. The text is littered with Hindu words without explanations; sometimes it’s possible to get the meaning from the context but not always. This doesn’t give a sense of place - just a sense of irritation.

I really dislike slating a book, especially from a relatively new author (even if she was longlisted for the Booker for her first book), but although I’ve tried hard, I can’t find anything positive to say about this one except that plenty of other people seem to be finding it a much more enjoyable read than I, as you will see if you look at the reviews on Amazon. But unfortunately I can’t recommend it.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating in 2012: 4 stars.

Rating in 2022: 4.5 stars.

[Vanya Prodanova · Rating 2 out of 5]

Започва скучно, върви скучно, но поне завършва с нещо малко, та да не си напълно недоволен.
Идеята на романа е оригинална и заинтригуваща, но не успява да те накара да почувстваш истински живота на това малко затворническо на свободен решим село. Твърде си зает да четеш абсурдните дерзания на главната героиня, която така ти скача по нервите, че ти се иска някой здраво да я напердаши, за да млъкне и да се разкара.

Е, книгата показва как НЕ се прави документален филм, как НЕ се работи в екип и как да НЕ показваш нищо от това, което читателят иска да види - частица от живота в Индия. Ако не са последните десетина страници, в които най-после нашата героиня застава и устоява себе си и това, в което вярва, то прочита на тази книга щеше да бъде пълно пилеене на време и пари. :)

[Elsa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh.
Esto es lo que pasa cuando eliges un libro por su portada bonita y colorida (que es lo más me ha gustado del libro la verdad)

[Baljit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat disappointing. The storyline delves more into the dynamics of the three people making the documentary then the inhabitants of the prison village. And I really did not see the point the writer was trying to make.

[Marc Faoite · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are books that entertain by virtue of their storyline or narrative. There are books that seduce us with aesthetic images and the beauty of the prose. There are books that challenge our preconceptions and give us a new perspective on the world. And there are occasionally books that manage to do all three. The Village by Nikita Lalwani is one of those books.
As the title suggest this book is about a village. But this is not an ordinary village. In fact it is an open prison where all the inmates are murderers.
The author, like the protagonist, travelled to India to make a BBC documentary about a real village very similar to the one depicted in this book and the details from her experience seem almost barely fictionalized. In fact the reader is left wondering which parts are true and which parts are the fruits of the writer’s imagination.
The author uses the story partially as a questioning of identity. The main character, a young woman named Ray, is of Indian stock, though lives in England, and speaks some Hindi. Though she shares some of the villagers’ physical attributes and cultural references she is almost as much an outsider as her two British colleagues. We see two sides of Ray – the one looking through the camera and the one seeing with her eyes. She is Indian, but she is not Indian. She is spectator and performer, playing out the role expected of her, trying to be more Indian than she really is. The villagers are villagers, but they are prisoners at the same time. When we see the seemingly mundane nature of these people’s daily lives and hear their stories from their lives before they committed their crimes we understand that they were already prisoners in the circumstances of their lives. The inference this reader took away from this book is that in a way every village in India is a prison of sorts, with its bars made of strict moral codes, caste segregation and often unreasonable expectations.
The documentarist’s camera is used as a device through which we see scenes, often of sublime beauty, even in the simplest of things. The camera focuses on details, highlights them, and in so doing, removes them from their context, transforming them into something else. Then there is the exploration of the documentary maker’s deliberate manipulation of images for emotional effect – how the shakiness of the handheld camera adds more raw authenticity and immediacy to a scene. The author shows us how things are twisted and then with her skilful prose proceeds to manipulate the alerted reader in exactly the same way. There is a thrill and joy in understanding the mechanism and still submitting to its charms.
In contrast, Ray’s own responses to what she sees are more emotionally charged than what is seen through the coldness of the camera lens. She faces challenges living and working with colleagues she barely knows outside the meeting room. Then there is the tension created by the knowledge that almost everyone she sees and meets has killed another human being.
But by far the most important theme of The Village is its exploration of the role of the prison system and what it means to take somebody’s freedom away and remove them from any normal context of human life. It questions the usefulness of the idea of incarceration purely as a form punishment, retribution and revenge. It explores the themes of rehabilitation and forgiveness, of responsibility, both of the criminal for the crime and of the penal system towards the criminals and to society as a whole.
At a time when members of both sides of the political divide in Malaysia are discussing the merits and usefulness of the death penalty this book offers an alternative vision of how to punish crime.

The criminals in this story remain largely integrated in society. They have the responsibility to work and fend for themselves and often to provide a livelihood for their families who live with them as well. In the traditional prison system no such prerogative exists. Prisoners have no real responsibilities towards their own upkeep and don’t have bills to pay. They become removed from society, often so far removed that it is almost impossible for them ever to come back and function as normal and productive citizens again. As Lalwani says in her book: “the traditional prison makes the transition back into society even harder.”
In The Village the prison walls are just a line of stones that even a child could step over. The prisoners have a great degree of personal autonomy. They are allowed to go to the town to work, but must return by six thirty in the evening. They fraternize with the prison guards, who are only distinguishable from the inmates by their uniforms. There are no re-offenders and no one attempts to escape - perhaps because returning to their previous lives is not an option and they have no better alternative life or place to escape to.
All told, a fascinating and beautifully written novel that reveals another facet of the imponderable mystery known as India.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought the novel had a lot of potential, but nothing really came of it. The author did a good job in setting the scene and building up the tension that the main character Ray was feeling, but there was no pay off until the very end...However, by this point I was long past caring. It's a shame because it could have been a gripping story, but the overriding emotion for me was boredom. I loved the description of the village and the people, the author really made Ashwer come alive with the descriptions of the heat, the vibrant colours and the stark living conditions. It wasn't really enough though, I wanted more, something, anything to happen! Disappointing.

[Damyanti Biswas]

I loved this book, but the ending did not satisfy. Gorgeous writing and great read. Recommended.

[Victoria Law · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful descriptions of the countryside, but the focus was on the 3 BBC people not on the village, the people in the village or the idea of having an open air prison where people convicted of murder could live semi-normal lives with their family. Instead, it seemed like office relationships and drama against a background of a fascinating open air prison that we never learn much about.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this I enjoyed and found fascinating but other aspects I found rather unbelievable and irritating.

The concept of the village and the characters residents of the village I found very interesting. Their stories were interesting and believable.

The three characters who were supposedly making a BBC documentary of the village, however, I felt were less believable. I honestly cannot believe that there would only be three people from the BBC involved in documentary making. I also found it hard to believe their behavior. I might be making assumptions that the BBC employees would be better behaved and more responsible and I hope that I am right.

The story was quite clever in that it did make you think about the morality of making a documentary which put people's lives in the spotlight and filmed as they were put in awkward emotional situations or told shocking health news.

The end was quite interesting and Ray, the main character and narrator made a very brave decision I felt.

I would like to read some of this author's other books as I found this a very different read.

[Karen Rye · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm... I think I'm still digesting this one. Struggling with a main protagonist who I'm sure I'm meant to dislike, but can see no redeeming features in and who seems a little trite. And yet there are so many things here to like. The prisoners stories are told with poignancy and empathy and the characters are, on the whole, beautifully developed. I just can't decide on how I feel at the end of it...

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

[DISCLAIMER: I WON THIS IN A GOODREADS GIVEAWAY]

I did not like this book. I didn't really like it much at all. It was difficult to get into, hard to follow along with, and the characters were ridiculous to the point of absurdity.

A good idea, but poor follow-through.

Edit 7/22/2013 - "Unfocused." That was the word I was looking for. There was no focus to the book at all.

[Sharon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review to follow

Really had high hopes but it was just dull with flat, lifeless & unlikeable characters.

[Damyanti Biswas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well-written and evocative.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Nikita Lalwani’s second novel, The Village, a three-member BBC film crew arrives in Northern India to make a documentary about a unique and fascinating social experiment: Ashwer is not a traditional village but an “open prison,” where those serving time for murder live with their families and support them with jobs in the outside community. Ray Bhullar (a 27-year-old woman of Indian descent) is the director, Serena the producer, and Nathan the on-screen presenter. The project is Ray’s idea: she convinced the BBC to fund it and she approaches her director’s role as an investigative journalist might, with both eyes open and in honest pursuit of an unbiased portrait of individuals living productive lives while making the best of a very strange situation. She wants her film to tell a compelling story while capturing in a respectful manner the hopes and fears of the inmates and their families. Unfortunately for Ray, Serena and Nathan have other agendas. Serena, as producer, is responsible for obtaining a marketable product for her employer and making sure their money is well spent. And Nathan, an arrogant minor film personality whose past includes time served for armed robbery, is working on a series of television presentations about prison systems and sees his participation in Ray’s film as an opportunity to enhance his celebrity status and perhaps get laid in the process. Inevitably Serena and Ray clash over their respective conceptions of what the final film should look like. Ray gets so close to her subjects—the people who agree to let themselves be interviewed—that her desire to protect their feelings and privacy interferes with her objectivity as a filmmaker. Serena, who regards Ray’s attitude as naïve and unhelpful, is willing to pursue high drama at any cost: blood-letting, emotional collapse … nothing is ruled out. As long as it looks authentic, her BBC colleagues will be satisfied, and the money will keep flowing. After a disastrous filming episode, Ray finally realizes that serving as the moral conscience of a film project is no fun, especially when nobody appreciates or respects her efforts. Lalwani’s novel is most successful when Ray is exploring the prison, making discoveries about life inside and getting to know the inhabitants. Admittedly, there is a certain gruesome fascination in learning about individual crimes and circumstances that led to incarceration. But the story is told from Ray’s perspective and as the action proceeds her crisis of conscience grows more acute, and the narrative occasionally bogs down while she agonizes over her failure to control the project and the harm it is causing the villagers. To be sure, The Village can be gripping, especially when the tensions among the film crew are at their most palpable. Lalwani’s writing is detailed, evocative and luminous. Ray Bhullar is easy to like, and we sympathize with the moral dilemma in which she finds herself. But her behaviour often comes across as emotional and impulsive—on more than one occasion she seems to act against her own best interests. So, while we can sympathize with her, we don’t always understand her. Unfortunately, this does not make her alluringly enigmatic, merely puzzling, with the result that it’s possible readers will finish The Village with as many questions as answers.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently read another of Nikita Lalwani's books 'You People' and found it a bit disappointing. I hoped that 'The Village' would inspire me a bit more, but I found quite a lot of the same problems. There's a seemingly interesting situation, a bunch of colourful and flawed characters, and some great writing. The problem in both books is a rambling lack of direction. They seem to be all about the journey with little attention to the final destination.

Three Brits - two working for the BBC, the third an ex-prisoner presenting a show about different approaches to punishing offenders - find themselves in India filming a documentary about an open prison where offenders (all of them murderers) are allowed to live with their families and work for themselves or local businesses. The premise is a good one - that if you treat people like human beings, give them responsibilities and let them work to feed their families, then they won't run away. What isn't really examined in enough depth, is the consequences of this approach on those families of being dragged into such a situation.

Ray (female) is the instigator of the project. She's of British-Indian origin and speaks some of the local languages but not fluently. Serena is her boss and doesn't always share Ray's artistic vision. Ray wants beautiful shots, finely constructed and optimally lit. Serena wants to manipulate the prisoners and their stories for more drama and is less bothered how things look. Nathan? Honestly, I'm a bit lost about what he's trying to achieve.

Documentaries are a fine example of the way that examining anything too closely changes the very thing that's being examined. The documentary team don't want to be a toxic influence on the smooth running open prison, but undoubtedly they are. Ray is pushed to 'stage' confrontations that are good for dramatic impact but not for the people involved.

This book is jam-packed with interesting but underdeveloped ideas. There are multiple opportunities to take the story further that just seem to be ignored. Many times I found myself thinking I knew what dramatic thing could happen next, but it seldom did. 'The Village' promises much but somehow always fails to delivery anything concrete. This book has hidden shallows.

The book has the skeleton of a potentially great story but not enough flesh and organs to deliver the real thing. The ending is rushed and a little unsatisfying. There's plenty of style but the substance is lacking.

I'm torn. I've now read two of her three novels and I'm not sure I can face further disappointment by chasing down the remaining one.

[Sivaani · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Village
By Nikita Lalwani
State: Rajasthan

Honestly, before I began this project I was very bordered and my reading circle was scope less. But as the title of my page goes I am now literally able to explore different areas of literature.

This book is a witness of the above statement. With a very rare and serious plot, it has addressed to one of the most serious issues of today - media privacy.

Set in the village of Ashwer in Rajasthan which is an open prison, where the accused is allowed to lead a normal life with his/her family, harnessed with certain rules. Ray Bhullar a England born Indian comes with her crew from BBC to film an unadulterated picture of the prisoners of this Open Prison(a prison with no bars, cells and strong securities).

But as time flies and the need for good content intensifies, they start intruding in prisoners' personal lives which stripes off their real face to prisoners which was masked earlier as kind, empathetic and change creating foreigners.

The Main protagonist Ray who is over sensitive and self obsessed, working with a "I don't care" producer Serena and "once a robber" presenter Nathan. This combination of characters itself didn't grip me to the story and the so called words of "pictorizing" India, only had unnecessary descriptions.

Though this book has touched an untapped plot, it hasn't been able to convey its narrowed down aim. It demands a highly empathetic reader to understand it.

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. The basis of the story is good, the writing style and flow are good, but the character development was sorely lacking. Two of the three Western characters come with essentially no background story. The simply who up before the reader wholly formed and with no explanation as to the motives behind their actions. The third has a partial back story, but it’s short on personal details and supplies no connection for the reader to grasp onto. Development of the local characters, for the most part, is either slightly better or far worse depending on the character. Ultimately, this story had great potential, but if the reader can’t connect to and/or doesn’t care about the characters, what’s the point?!?

[Ian Plenderleith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Three BBC hacks travel to India to make a documentary about an open prison and - thanks to their cluelessness and ignorance - pretty much get everything they deserve. They're about as likeable as a bout of the shits the lead character is constantly subjected to thanks to poor eating and drinking choices. Raced through it, right enough, but only so that I could read something else as quickly as possible. Would have dumped it earlier if I hadn't wasted nine quid on it. It may be a savage indictment of journalistic mores, but it has all the nuance of a rogue elephant let loose on the village jamboree.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book - it was such an interesting concept - but I just didn't. I can't put my finger on why, exactly, it was just very flat. There are lots of stories going on that don't seem to be tied up or fleshed out particularly well and the same can be said for most of the characters. All the main characters are not likeable and they didn't have much back story either. A lot of the reviews say this book is unfocussed and I definitely agree, there are way too many stories and so none of them are engaging or full enough, so they all fall flat.

[Jeni · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars for this one. An enjoyable read but quite short and I think maybe because of this I found it lacking in depth - the characters were all very superficial and either shallow or naive. I also expected more of a sense of danger considering the setting and was disappointed that most of the tension came from the visiting crew sniping at each other rather than the situation or the unfolding story. Kept me interested though, and I liked the way it ended.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a concept well-delivered. The prose is a bit dense at times, but the flowing dialogue and elevated vocabulary help move things along. The subtlety with which the colonizer/colonized dichotomy spreads throughout the narrative makes the climax and falling action relatively predictable, yet cheer-worthy all the same. I wasn't sure how it would end but I'm glad it ended the way it did. Overall, a decent read.

[Maggins McMurray · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing was beautiful, the premise was very intriguing, and I enjoyed the narrative for the most part, I genuinely enjoy books with slow pacing.
The characterisation was challenging for me. It's not so much that the characters were "unlikeable" as described by others here, again, I can appreciate characters that I am supposed to dislike. I unfortunately found myself unable to really believe in the main characters, Serena in particular was very 2D.

[I Read, Therefore I Blog · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nikita Lalwani’s literary novel about prisons, personal morality and the manipulative techniques of documentary film-makers has some interesting ideas but hinges on a main character who is simply too naive and weak to be believable or one who I could empathise with. At the same time, I was uncomfortable with how two-dimensional the Indian characters all are - including Nandini - while the open ending felt like a tacked on cop-out.

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a 2.5 star read for me. It's a story. Was it memorable, not really. Did I hate it? No. I didn't like any of the characters. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not. The book explores some interesting concepts but, superficially. It would make a decent bookclub read as it it short and offers a lot for discussion.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars. The storyline is such that it made me feel a bit uneasy, but in the end it still was lacking something. Made me think about how journalists work and their ethics, but ultimately its a book which didnt impact me. It had potential, but didnt live up to it (and no, that doesnt mean that i missed action necessarily).

[Cassidy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow burner, but really picks up about halfway through. A story of a woman navigating her world and identities, as a woman, as someone from Indian descent, as a person from the UK, as a native English speaker, and as a second-language Hindi speaker.

[Barbara Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unusual story line, which I found difficult to get into at first but the effort to continue paid off.