Limbo: A Novel

by Sujit Saraf

LIMBO is the story of a lower middle class family in a small town in north India. It revolves around the ten year old boy called "Khoku" and a reclusive young man called "Sabu". Khoku's little mind admits many anomalies : his English teacher, Miss Young, a stickler for correct pronunciation, and who is totally unaware that her wearing skirts draws a lot of attention; his aunt, "Mousi" who always seems to know what is right and whose mere presence puts everyone in the wrong, "Ma", mother, who always seems to know what will happen and is resigned to her omniscience; father, who goes to work every morning on a bicycle and who once actually lowered his files to smile; "Mani", his eldest sister, who plays the mother to all of them and who forgets to add sugar in the tea; "Naren" his brother who wants to become a pilot. Khoku and Naren regard Sabu, whose head is full of ideas, with a mixture of awe, contempt and curiosity, treating his fantastic stories with little credulity, until they themselves become protagonists in a story that shatters their complacent world.

239 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Sujit Saraf received an engineering degree from IIT Delhi and a Ph.D. from Berkeley. He has conducted research for NASA, taught at IIT and worked as a space scientist in California. When not at his desk, he runs Naatak, an Indian theatre company in America for which he writes and directs plays and films.