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Railsong
Sweeping, elegiac and at times wonderfully comic, Railsong is a powerful portrait of a woman forging a life for herself amid the social and political upheavals of twentieth-century India.
In a young country charged with national vigour, Charu, the motherless child of a railway worker, pines for a life freed of oppressive domesticity. As diesel engines replace steam, and the calamitous churn of drought, famine, strike, chokes the railway township, she dares to imagine a different future for herself. Boarding a train she flees westwards to Bombay, even as the country rumbles towards Emergency. In the frenetic landscape of the great modern metropolis, Charu, the budding adventuress, seeks the means to live on her own terms.
Tenaciously she fills the blanks in her life – the idealistic, artistic father Animesh whom she abandoned; the enigmatic mother Jigyasa long gone; her funny surname Chitol that no one recognizes; her bank balance – with her own material. Negotiating the treacherous planes of love, she marries a sheltered easy-goer. Fighting tragedy and loss, she becomes, after all, a railway woman. Against the rapidly clarifying prejudices around her, unfazed by everyday discriminations, she remains a small hero, an Everywoman who keeps her heart open – sometimes guilelessly – to her nation’s vast possibility.
In a young country charged with national vigour, Charu, the motherless child of a railway worker, pines for a life freed of oppressive domesticity. As diesel engines replace steam, and the calamitous churn of drought, famine, strike, chokes the railway township, she dares to imagine a different future for herself. Boarding a train she flees westwards to Bombay, even as the country rumbles towards Emergency. In the frenetic landscape of the great modern metropolis, Charu, the budding adventuress, seeks the means to live on her own terms.
Tenaciously she fills the blanks in her life – the idealistic, artistic father Animesh whom she abandoned; the enigmatic mother Jigyasa long gone; her funny surname Chitol that no one recognizes; her bank balance – with her own material. Negotiating the treacherous planes of love, she marries a sheltered easy-goer. Fighting tragedy and loss, she becomes, after all, a railway woman. Against the rapidly clarifying prejudices around her, unfazed by everyday discriminations, she remains a small hero, an Everywoman who keeps her heart open – sometimes guilelessly – to her nation’s vast possibility.
402 pages, Hardcover
First published February 17, 2026
58 people are currently reading
3653 people want to read
About the author
Rahul Bhattacharya
17 books45 followersRahul Bhattacharya is a writer, journalist and editor. His first novel, The Sly Company of People Who Care, won the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize. Pundits from Pakistan, his first book, was a Wisden Cricketer top ten cricket book of all time. He was born in Bombay and lives in Delhi with his wife and two daughters.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
November 27, 2025
I’ll never forget Charu Chitol.
December 8, 2025
I remember loving The Sly Company Of People Who Care, and I remember feeling that there was something special about that young writer. It took Bhattacharya thirteen years to write another book...and I was lucky enough this time to get an autographed copy, courtesy a friend.
This one is a very different novel. But it is special too, in its own way. It is not everyday that a man writes convincingly from a woman's point of view. But Charulata Chitol, as the heart of this book, is lovely. She grows up in a fictional railway town, daughter of a Bihari mother and a Bengali father, who in the idealism of the India of the fifties and sixties, decides to give up his high caste surname for the indeterminate one of Chitol. That idealism stays with Charu through her life, as she runs away to Bombay looking for freedom and independence, as she encounters the bureaucracy of a railway job, as she tries to work through the complications of an inter-state marriage. Through her life we see the life of a nation, as Bhattacharya weaves in, ever so subtly, the events that shaped India in the latter half of the twentieth century. And also through her life, we see the change in women - as they begin to work outside their homes, negotiating an autonomy society is loathe to grant them. But the magical core of the book is the Indian Railways - its ordinary employees, the clerks and the sweepers and the station masters and the ticket inspectors. Charu, as she travels the trains as a welfare officer, meets them all and sees in them the complex richness that is India. Bhattacharya writes a love song to this behemoth - as it chugs along, inspite of all its problems, carrying a billion Indians across the land, irrespective of their caste or religion or language.
I don't know if I loved this as much as I loved The Sly Company, but Bhattacharya tells a good tale, slow-moving in parts, but heart-warming and rewarding as a whole.
A recommend.
This one is a very different novel. But it is special too, in its own way. It is not everyday that a man writes convincingly from a woman's point of view. But Charulata Chitol, as the heart of this book, is lovely. She grows up in a fictional railway town, daughter of a Bihari mother and a Bengali father, who in the idealism of the India of the fifties and sixties, decides to give up his high caste surname for the indeterminate one of Chitol. That idealism stays with Charu through her life, as she runs away to Bombay looking for freedom and independence, as she encounters the bureaucracy of a railway job, as she tries to work through the complications of an inter-state marriage. Through her life we see the life of a nation, as Bhattacharya weaves in, ever so subtly, the events that shaped India in the latter half of the twentieth century. And also through her life, we see the change in women - as they begin to work outside their homes, negotiating an autonomy society is loathe to grant them. But the magical core of the book is the Indian Railways - its ordinary employees, the clerks and the sweepers and the station masters and the ticket inspectors. Charu, as she travels the trains as a welfare officer, meets them all and sees in them the complex richness that is India. Bhattacharya writes a love song to this behemoth - as it chugs along, inspite of all its problems, carrying a billion Indians across the land, irrespective of their caste or religion or language.
I don't know if I loved this as much as I loved The Sly Company, but Bhattacharya tells a good tale, slow-moving in parts, but heart-warming and rewarding as a whole.
A recommend.
November 15, 2025
As slow-moving as the titular trains winding through the book, with little of the promised song. Although Charu was an interesting and complex character, her mundane adventures and the ponderous writing style that relayed them failed to engage.
March 2, 2026
Railsong opens in the fictional town of Bhombalpur in the state of Bihar, India at the time of the 1961 census when Charulata (Charu) Chitol, the child of a mixed caste marriage, is three years old. Her mother dies a few years later and Charu and her two brothers are raised by their railway worker/political activist father.
As a 16 year-old searching for freedom and independence, Charu flees on a cross-country train to Bombay where she lives with maternal relatives for a time while attending college before finding work in a shoe store and moving to a women's hostel. Eventually she secures a position with the Indian Railways where she is known as Miss Chitol and builds a career beginning as a junior clerk and advancing through the system to become a welfare inspector investigating worker's claims and fraud.
Spanning three decades (1961-92), Railsong is a heartfelt coming of age story about a complex young woman in a changing India in the latter half of the 20th century. Charu's struggle for personal independence takes place against a backdrop of social and political upheaval in modern day India highlighting the inequality that exists both between castes and within the patriarchal society. Through Charu we observe the changing role of women in India's workforce and the importance of Indian Railways as an employer. I enjoyed learning more about the history and geography of the country and Charu is a memorable character. Railsong is an interesting and enjoyable story although I did find it to be slow moving and the prose a bit awkward at times.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA for providing a digital ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
As a 16 year-old searching for freedom and independence, Charu flees on a cross-country train to Bombay where she lives with maternal relatives for a time while attending college before finding work in a shoe store and moving to a women's hostel. Eventually she secures a position with the Indian Railways where she is known as Miss Chitol and builds a career beginning as a junior clerk and advancing through the system to become a welfare inspector investigating worker's claims and fraud.
Spanning three decades (1961-92), Railsong is a heartfelt coming of age story about a complex young woman in a changing India in the latter half of the 20th century. Charu's struggle for personal independence takes place against a backdrop of social and political upheaval in modern day India highlighting the inequality that exists both between castes and within the patriarchal society. Through Charu we observe the changing role of women in India's workforce and the importance of Indian Railways as an employer. I enjoyed learning more about the history and geography of the country and Charu is a memorable character. Railsong is an interesting and enjoyable story although I did find it to be slow moving and the prose a bit awkward at times.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury USA for providing a digital ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
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November 16, 2025DNF. This just isn't working for me. I'm bored.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Sublime
January 13, 2026
Read it twice, a quick read through the second time. But Charulata Chitol is a heroine in the truest sense of the word.
Although it’s a 4.5 for me because as beautiful as the story is, the awkward clunkyness of the prose in some parts really starts getting to you.
Although it’s a 4.5 for me because as beautiful as the story is, the awkward clunkyness of the prose in some parts really starts getting to you.
Review of advance copy
Born into a relatively young India, a very young Ms. Chitol arrives at the railway workshop town of Bhombalpur. Here she faces a tragedy early in her young life and that sets into motion events that cast their shadows throughout her life.
But time and again our Ms. Chitol refuses to be defined by her circumstances. She never loses her convictions and each time she forges her own path.
She is not exactly an always morally upright character and has ample shades of grey. But you always find yourself rooting for her. And that's how you realize this is a character whom the author loves, maybe even is partial to her. He devotes equal parts to the work of a woman as he does to her personal life. How work shapes her life.
A superb example of a character driven novel. The Indian Railways, life and work in the Railways and train journeys become an authentic backdrop against which the character of Ms. Chitol comes alive for the reader.
This book has all the makings of a modern Indian classic along the lines of The God of Small Things and A Fine Balance.
But time and again our Ms. Chitol refuses to be defined by her circumstances. She never loses her convictions and each time she forges her own path.
She is not exactly an always morally upright character and has ample shades of grey. But you always find yourself rooting for her. And that's how you realize this is a character whom the author loves, maybe even is partial to her. He devotes equal parts to the work of a woman as he does to her personal life. How work shapes her life.
A superb example of a character driven novel. The Indian Railways, life and work in the Railways and train journeys become an authentic backdrop against which the character of Ms. Chitol comes alive for the reader.
This book has all the makings of a modern Indian classic along the lines of The God of Small Things and A Fine Balance.
February 21, 2026
This book came highly recommended and didn't disappoint.
Loved the heroine, Charulata Chitol. What a character. We follow her right from when she's a child in 1961, who moves with her parents to a railway township in Bhombalpur (an imaginary town in Bihar) to when she's in her mid-30s in Bombay. She's so memorably written; she runs away from home at 16 to make her own life in Bombay. She has a soft landing to the extent that she has her mother's brother to live with. She dabbles with getting an education, while hiding the fact that she works in a shoe shop. She meets men, gets her heart broken but all the while her primary purpose is independence. She loathes the idea that her life's purpose (as for most women in that era) is to get married and take care of her husband and kids. She moves from one PG accommodation to another.
Her life and the book really kick into gear after her father passes away and she gets a "compassionate posting" (after much dogged chasing) in the Railways. I loved the fact that she refuses the easy way out of accepting a job in Bhombalpur and insists on working in Bombay. Eventually, she marries for love, and true to character leaves when she thinks she can't live in her husband's house on her terms anymore and continues to focus on her career in the Railways. At this point, she's a welfare inspector and each case/story is dealt with so beautifully. The author goes deep into the bureaucracy behind the running of the Railways and you feel the incompetence, the patience, the frustration behind every interaction, every delay, every file.
Aside from the midsection where long passages on Railway rules somehow become the focus, and some uneven pacing (the author describes indepth her efforts to get a job in the Railways, but somehow she's married in a line!), the book is lovely. The ending moved me to tears: "The straps of her backpack impressed into her shoulders a great many written people, a disorderly bunch which only had in common that their lives had crossed hers, flickering upon each other the miracle of their journeys, like travellers on a train to who knows where, but somewhere, certainly somewhere; and pressing on her worn heel, into the song of the rail climbed Charulata Chitol, who had wanted to count people."
Loved the heroine, Charulata Chitol. What a character. We follow her right from when she's a child in 1961, who moves with her parents to a railway township in Bhombalpur (an imaginary town in Bihar) to when she's in her mid-30s in Bombay. She's so memorably written; she runs away from home at 16 to make her own life in Bombay. She has a soft landing to the extent that she has her mother's brother to live with. She dabbles with getting an education, while hiding the fact that she works in a shoe shop. She meets men, gets her heart broken but all the while her primary purpose is independence. She loathes the idea that her life's purpose (as for most women in that era) is to get married and take care of her husband and kids. She moves from one PG accommodation to another.
Her life and the book really kick into gear after her father passes away and she gets a "compassionate posting" (after much dogged chasing) in the Railways. I loved the fact that she refuses the easy way out of accepting a job in Bhombalpur and insists on working in Bombay. Eventually, she marries for love, and true to character leaves when she thinks she can't live in her husband's house on her terms anymore and continues to focus on her career in the Railways. At this point, she's a welfare inspector and each case/story is dealt with so beautifully. The author goes deep into the bureaucracy behind the running of the Railways and you feel the incompetence, the patience, the frustration behind every interaction, every delay, every file.
Aside from the midsection where long passages on Railway rules somehow become the focus, and some uneven pacing (the author describes indepth her efforts to get a job in the Railways, but somehow she's married in a line!), the book is lovely. The ending moved me to tears: "The straps of her backpack impressed into her shoulders a great many written people, a disorderly bunch which only had in common that their lives had crossed hers, flickering upon each other the miracle of their journeys, like travellers on a train to who knows where, but somewhere, certainly somewhere; and pressing on her worn heel, into the song of the rail climbed Charulata Chitol, who had wanted to count people."
March 2, 2026
A biiiig thank you to @bloomsburyindia for this copy ❤️
..............................
Ms Chitol has my heart. Really. And I'm in love with Rahul Bhattacharya's prose - so poetic, so lyrical! What Bhattacharya has done is weave a rich tapestry of personal longings, grief and joys, political upheavals, and quiet undercurrents of revolutionary changes that take place within an individual. What remains at the heart of his narration essentially, is the Indian railway; literally binding the various aspects of this beautiful tale together.
The story begins in a tiny fictional railway township of Bhombalpur. Little Charu/Ms Chitol, is a motherless child surviving amid poverty, a strict grandmother, and a kind father. Her life turns 180 degrees when she flees to Mumbai escaping the rut and the shackles of Bhombalpur.
Spanning from the 1960s to the 90s, the story has rich expression of every emotion, all very heartfelt. At the same time it captures the India of the 20th century, all with its political changes, religious clashes, and an evolving society that's slowly but surely leaving behind simpler times.
Throughout the book you find yourself rooting for Ms Chitol. No, she's no simple saint. But she wins your heart with her daily struggles and undying positive spirit. Her self healing, sincerity and discipline pulls her out of her downtrodden environment to something much calmer and uplifting.
The novel carefully touches on issues of caste and religion, class, patriarchy, fragile male egos, all from the 1980s perspective that seems long gone albeit much-relevant even today.
As Ms Chitol finds her footing in Mumbai, finds love, builds a career, finds her true self, you find yourself walking with her, never wanting to stop.
This novel is a must-read for literary fiction lovers; without a doubt. It is magnificent yet grounded, extremely simple yet immensely complex. I couldn't get enough of it.
..............................
Ms Chitol has my heart. Really. And I'm in love with Rahul Bhattacharya's prose - so poetic, so lyrical! What Bhattacharya has done is weave a rich tapestry of personal longings, grief and joys, political upheavals, and quiet undercurrents of revolutionary changes that take place within an individual. What remains at the heart of his narration essentially, is the Indian railway; literally binding the various aspects of this beautiful tale together.
The story begins in a tiny fictional railway township of Bhombalpur. Little Charu/Ms Chitol, is a motherless child surviving amid poverty, a strict grandmother, and a kind father. Her life turns 180 degrees when she flees to Mumbai escaping the rut and the shackles of Bhombalpur.
Spanning from the 1960s to the 90s, the story has rich expression of every emotion, all very heartfelt. At the same time it captures the India of the 20th century, all with its political changes, religious clashes, and an evolving society that's slowly but surely leaving behind simpler times.
Throughout the book you find yourself rooting for Ms Chitol. No, she's no simple saint. But she wins your heart with her daily struggles and undying positive spirit. Her self healing, sincerity and discipline pulls her out of her downtrodden environment to something much calmer and uplifting.
The novel carefully touches on issues of caste and religion, class, patriarchy, fragile male egos, all from the 1980s perspective that seems long gone albeit much-relevant even today.
As Ms Chitol finds her footing in Mumbai, finds love, builds a career, finds her true self, you find yourself walking with her, never wanting to stop.
This novel is a must-read for literary fiction lovers; without a doubt. It is magnificent yet grounded, extremely simple yet immensely complex. I couldn't get enough of it.
Review of advance copy
I’ve journeyed into the new year with Rahul Bhattacharya’s Railsong… with Charulata Chitol’s adventures and astonishing range of musings for company.
I have followed her from a sleepy railway township in eastern India where she grew up with her brothers. And I’m sitting with her in a concert hall in faraway, deliriously liberating Bombay where she is about to meet the man she may possibly spend her life with.
At that point, she is waiting… for life to get going. A wait that is filled with new adventures and old grievances, could-be boyfriends and nosy colleagues… a wait in which she feels she is on the threshold of something… but what?
And then she realises that the wait is the real deal.
“Without the wait, everything is hollow. Without meaning. Why must I resist the waiting? The journeys we navigate everyday failing to recognise the exquisite. … the sadness, the richness, the pleasure of the waiting and the wandering… we forfeit all for the mundane”
And so she waits: for trains, for buses and bullock carts, for the decisions that must surmount red tape and optics, for her family to come to terms with her choices.
I liked the way the events in independent India’s history and the span of its geography are woven into Charu’s story. I loved the way her story shifts gears once she arrives at Bombay, her absorbing of the sights, sounds, smells and tics. And her intense desire to “belong” to this chaotically endearing city.
I’m gobsmacked at the amount of research it must have taken to chronicle a railway employee’s life and fieldwork in such rich detail.
At the close of the last chapter (which hangs at a critical date), Charu is “vividly sentimental and sensationally alive.”
As I close the book, I can say much the same for myself.
I have followed her from a sleepy railway township in eastern India where she grew up with her brothers. And I’m sitting with her in a concert hall in faraway, deliriously liberating Bombay where she is about to meet the man she may possibly spend her life with.
At that point, she is waiting… for life to get going. A wait that is filled with new adventures and old grievances, could-be boyfriends and nosy colleagues… a wait in which she feels she is on the threshold of something… but what?
And then she realises that the wait is the real deal.
“Without the wait, everything is hollow. Without meaning. Why must I resist the waiting? The journeys we navigate everyday failing to recognise the exquisite. … the sadness, the richness, the pleasure of the waiting and the wandering… we forfeit all for the mundane”
And so she waits: for trains, for buses and bullock carts, for the decisions that must surmount red tape and optics, for her family to come to terms with her choices.
I liked the way the events in independent India’s history and the span of its geography are woven into Charu’s story. I loved the way her story shifts gears once she arrives at Bombay, her absorbing of the sights, sounds, smells and tics. And her intense desire to “belong” to this chaotically endearing city.
I’m gobsmacked at the amount of research it must have taken to chronicle a railway employee’s life and fieldwork in such rich detail.
At the close of the last chapter (which hangs at a critical date), Charu is “vividly sentimental and sensationally alive.”
As I close the book, I can say much the same for myself.
Review of advance copy
it's hard to know where to begin—but this may be the best Indian novel in English I have ever read. certainly I am finding it hard to think of something that surpasses it. what Rahul Bhattacharya has managed in this book is to write his protagonist with such sensitivity and care that she never becomes two-dimensional or a caricature; but most importantly, she carries that sensibility with her into the world she lives in, narrating the people she encounters and their worldviews in a manner that is uncompromising without being harsh. the novel deals with India across decades of momentous change, through the Emergency and the railway strikes all the way to the demolition of Babri Masjid and the entrenchment of anti-Muslim bigotry in everyday life. other novels in recent years have attempted to deal with Hindu majoritarianism and caste in India, but have often betrayed the author's own urbane guilt and anxieties, or have shown the writer's derision for the people they criticise. that is never the case with this novel, which is critical and truthful without ever collapsing people into caricatures or stereotypes. it is also beautifully written, preserving much of the colloquialisms of Indian English without aiming to be translatable to a Western audience (in the Indian hardback edition, anyway). and it draws out the mundane, sometimes ugly details of everyday life (from period cramps to rat-bitten curtains) but still grants them beauty and dignity. it took me several weeks to read, much longer than usual, but I can't recommend this book enough.
February 22, 2026
Silver Railway tracks or the stitches of Kantha embroidery ? Or both ? My first thoughts , when I see the Blue-bare hard-cover, shorn of its decorative paper-one.
A woven Tapestry of a life, written with such a knowing understanding of a female mind - a pleasant surprise- with a sensitivity that I have read last in Tagore's. With descriptive prose never indulging in itself too much , never leaning to the tedious ; the right balance.
As a person who never knew the intricracies of the clerk /welfare verification / Census work - a peek into this world through the eyes of girl, tenaciously climbing her way up to the VT (now CST) main "beautiful building" office at Bombay (now Mumbai) is a ride that I shall indulge in - not once, but couple of times.
Do read and understand why she was never referred to by her first name in the book , unlike her brothers, but by her surname "Chitol" - an aspirational name given by a parent taken away too soon, whose absence lingered through letters address to the other parent discovered later , whose ideals forged her identity.
Pick this one up - a shelf keeper :)
A woven Tapestry of a life, written with such a knowing understanding of a female mind - a pleasant surprise- with a sensitivity that I have read last in Tagore's. With descriptive prose never indulging in itself too much , never leaning to the tedious ; the right balance.
As a person who never knew the intricracies of the clerk /welfare verification / Census work - a peek into this world through the eyes of girl, tenaciously climbing her way up to the VT (now CST) main "beautiful building" office at Bombay (now Mumbai) is a ride that I shall indulge in - not once, but couple of times.
Do read and understand why she was never referred to by her first name in the book , unlike her brothers, but by her surname "Chitol" - an aspirational name given by a parent taken away too soon, whose absence lingered through letters address to the other parent discovered later , whose ideals forged her identity.
Pick this one up - a shelf keeper :)
February 24, 2026
I hope Charu Chitol's tenacity continues to inspire me.
I love long sprawling sagas and this one, as others have noted, is definitely reminiscent of A Suitable Boy. As Charu grows into adulthood, India goes through its transitions - there is the emergency, the assassination of Indira Gandhi, railway union strikes, caste tensions, religious riots, demands for the Ram temple - that create the backdrop of the social tensions of the time. I dipped into the story completely, transported back into the Bombay of the 80s. It is a story that needs to be told in current times. Our fault lines as a country have always been the same, yet there is so much that connects us - the railways, the census that enumerates the millions to billions of us, yet there is hope, there is the idealism of those who came before us, each small life adding up to what is the whole.
If I had to fault anything, it would be the middle section that could have been cut short and at times felt a little tedious.
I love long sprawling sagas and this one, as others have noted, is definitely reminiscent of A Suitable Boy. As Charu grows into adulthood, India goes through its transitions - there is the emergency, the assassination of Indira Gandhi, railway union strikes, caste tensions, religious riots, demands for the Ram temple - that create the backdrop of the social tensions of the time. I dipped into the story completely, transported back into the Bombay of the 80s. It is a story that needs to be told in current times. Our fault lines as a country have always been the same, yet there is so much that connects us - the railways, the census that enumerates the millions to billions of us, yet there is hope, there is the idealism of those who came before us, each small life adding up to what is the whole.
If I had to fault anything, it would be the middle section that could have been cut short and at times felt a little tedious.
Review of advance copy
Rahul Bhattacharya's Railsong is an ambitious and dizzying novel that succeeds in what it sets out to tell - the story of Charulata, a.k.a., Charu, Chitol.
Born to a humanist (and equally important, Indian railway employee) father, who trades in his high-caste last name for an invented and uncategorisable Chitol, Charu's story begins in Colonial India and ends after the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
As the railways criss-cross and connect India, Charu too travels, physically and metaphorcally, in a time when few women would dream of leading a life that was not laid out for them by their fathers or husbands. She marries outside her community, takes up unconventional jobs, and lives life on her terms.
All the praise being heaped on this book isn't enough. It's an excellent and moving read.
Born to a humanist (and equally important, Indian railway employee) father, who trades in his high-caste last name for an invented and uncategorisable Chitol, Charu's story begins in Colonial India and ends after the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
As the railways criss-cross and connect India, Charu too travels, physically and metaphorcally, in a time when few women would dream of leading a life that was not laid out for them by their fathers or husbands. She marries outside her community, takes up unconventional jobs, and lives life on her terms.
All the praise being heaped on this book isn't enough. It's an excellent and moving read.
February 27, 2026
4.5 stars
This is a truly wonderful read for its creation of the character of Charu Chitol. The author’s perspicacity regarding the many layers and aspects of a woman’s mind and life is truly astounding and quite impressive coming, as it does, from a man. I really liked the book for its ambition and scope as it attempts to capture the story of an emerging India over the 60s to 90s decades, through the stories of the Indian Railways and the national census.
The language was just a bit clunky and some sentences felt too ponderous. And there was perhaps too much information dumped too earnestly in parts, but all in all such a great read that these were not difficult to overlook.
This is a truly wonderful read for its creation of the character of Charu Chitol. The author’s perspicacity regarding the many layers and aspects of a woman’s mind and life is truly astounding and quite impressive coming, as it does, from a man. I really liked the book for its ambition and scope as it attempts to capture the story of an emerging India over the 60s to 90s decades, through the stories of the Indian Railways and the national census.
The language was just a bit clunky and some sentences felt too ponderous. And there was perhaps too much information dumped too earnestly in parts, but all in all such a great read that these were not difficult to overlook.
November 24, 2025
This novel is a beautifully crafted tapestry of personal longing, political undercurrents, and the quiet revolutions that take place inside ordinary lives. Rooted in social history and alive with the spirit of change, the book follows its protagonist through the rhythms of everyday existence—railway journeys, domestic moments, inner conflicts—and turns them into something luminous and memorable.
What stands out most is the lyrical quality of the prose. The writing is gentle yet powerful, full of emotional intelligence and an unhurried depth that lets you settle into the character’s world. The narrative moves with a subtle elegance, blurring the line between the personal and the political—echoing a time when freedom, identity, and the longing for more shaped the texture of daily life.
There’s a quiet courage in the storytelling. Instead of relying on dramatic twists, the author explores the profound in the ordinary—capturing the tenderness, humour, and tragedies that unfold over days and years. The result is a novel that feels both intimate and expansive, one that honours the weight of history while never losing sight of the human heart at its centre.
A deeply evocative, gorgeously written book—perfect for readers who love character-driven stories, poetic writing, and narratives grounded in real social landscapes.
What stands out most is the lyrical quality of the prose. The writing is gentle yet powerful, full of emotional intelligence and an unhurried depth that lets you settle into the character’s world. The narrative moves with a subtle elegance, blurring the line between the personal and the political—echoing a time when freedom, identity, and the longing for more shaped the texture of daily life.
There’s a quiet courage in the storytelling. Instead of relying on dramatic twists, the author explores the profound in the ordinary—capturing the tenderness, humour, and tragedies that unfold over days and years. The result is a novel that feels both intimate and expansive, one that honours the weight of history while never losing sight of the human heart at its centre.
A deeply evocative, gorgeously written book—perfect for readers who love character-driven stories, poetic writing, and narratives grounded in real social landscapes.
Review of advance copy
I was rooting for Charu throughout, and her father had my heart too. Changing the last name was no small gesture, and the fact that he did it mattered. Charu's childhood played a role in who she became later on. That said, there were perhaps too many side stories. I found it hard to keep track of the P, N, J, etc. boyfriends. It was interesting, though, that the author chose not to reveal their names until things felt almost certain.
December 2, 2025
Nostalgic, quietly powerful, empathetic, and richly detailed. The journey of Charu set against the backdrop of Indian Railways and the various socio-political situations overlapping with themes of gender, identity, caste and relationships is magnificent.
The lyrical prose and the winding sentences combined with grit, wit and dry humor are a testament to the author's writing skills.
What a pick for the book club!
The lyrical prose and the winding sentences combined with grit, wit and dry humor are a testament to the author's writing skills.
What a pick for the book club!
Review of advance copy
This book is already out in India. 100/10. Might be one of the best novels I’ve read in recent times. Ms Chitol is a character who is going to stay with me for a while. The city of Bombay and the railways are so skilfully laid out, you feel like you are there. Loved this book so much.
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January 31, 2026Swaying like a melody, chugging along a majestic and beatific journey of a wonderful Charu Chitol, traversing the lands of nation, a motion, an advancement, an emotional story of grit, grievances and glory.
January 19, 2026
This was a beautiful read about a Bengali, Indian Railways family, and in particular, the life and choices of the daughter, Charu. It spans decades, is brilliantly researched, gives you a realistic sense of politics and life at that time (both in smalltown Bihar and bustling Bombay), and is often laugh-out-loud funny. It was brave/ambitious of Bhattacharya to choose a woman protagonist, and she ended up not only being plausible but complex and quite moving. One of my best recent reads.
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