We of the Forsaken World...

by Kiran Bhat

In a distant corner of the globe, a man journeys to the birthplace of his mother, a tourist town destroyed by an industrial spill. In a nameless remote tribe, the chief’s second son is born, creating a scramble for succession as their jungles are being destroyed by loggers. In one of the world’s sprawling metropolises, a homeless one-armed woman sets out to take revenge upon the men who trafficked her. And, in a small village of shanty shacks connected only by a mud-and- concrete road, a milkmaid watches the girls she calls friends destroy her reputation.

In we of the forsaken world… Kiran Bhat tells the stories of four worlds falling apart, through the structure of four linguistic chains, comprised of the accounts of four people witnessing the decline of these worlds, in four acts. Like modern communication networks, these sixteen stories connect along subtle lines, dispersing at the moments where another story is about to take place. they flow together and disconnect. Each story is a parable of its own, into the mind of a distinct human being. These are the tales of not just sixteen strangers, but many different lives, who live on this planet, at every second, everywhere.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Contemporary, Indian Literature, Dystopia, 21st Century

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 22, 2020

About the author

I define myself as a novelist writing for the global age. My parents made Atlanta our home, my grandmother made Mysore a home of another sorts, and I chose to make New York, Madrid, Lisboa, Sao Paulo, Cuzco, Delhi, Mombasa, Tokyo, Istanbul, Yogyakarta, Bangalore, Shanghai, Moscow, and Cairo my homes. At the moment, I have traveled to 140 countries in a decade, lived in 25 different corners of the planet, and speak 12 languages. I currently live in Mumbai.

I am the author of we of the forsaken world... (Iguana Books, 2020), the Portuguese-language story cycle Afora Adentro (Editora Labrador, 2020), the Spanish-language poetry collection Autobiografia (Letrame Editorial, 2019) the Mandarin-language poetry collection Kiran Speaks (White Elephant Press, 2019), as well as the Kannada-language travelogue Tirugaatha (Chiranthana Media Solutions, 2019).

we of the forsaken world... is the book of mine which has gotten the most acclaim thus far. Taiye Selasi has called it, "A fascinating, genre-defying work. Meditative, thought-provoking, Calvino-esque," whereas Kirkus Reviews has seen we of the forsaken world... as "A compelling mosaic of worldbuilding," and Midwest Book Review as "a deftly crafted work that showcases the author's impressive literary skills, flair for originality, and exceptional knack for the kind of narrative driven storytelling that keeps and holds the readers total engagement."

Anyways, looking forward to connect with more people, from all corners of this wondrous earth. <3

Reviews

[Marc Lamot · Rating 3 out of 5]

“In writing this novel, I wanted to imagine what it would be like to create a narrative where people unrelated to each other physically begin to work indirectly as beings connected by virtue of being part of this very Earth.”
The American-Indian author Kiran Bhat (1990°) uses 4 very different settings, each with 4 unnamed main characters (or perhaps better: perspectives) to weave a web of interactions and interconnections, in a chaotic world. A lot of themes pass by, but that of globalization and how individuals deal with it in different settings seems to be the central angle, and especially in the environments that clearly do not belong to the first world. Bhat thus gives an image of the similarity of human existences, where everyone fights their own battle in a specific environment, a combination of universality and singularity. These are not very uplifting stories, because the focus is clearly on the threats and chaos. Ingenious, what Bhat has done, absolutely. But for me his texts did not come to life completely, the chapters are too short for that. But Kiran Bhat clearly shows that he has something to offer.

[Constantine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: Very Good

Genre: Literary Fiction

We of The Forsaken World is a novel that tells the story of four different fictional worlds. These worlds are declining morally, culturally and in other aspects as well. The book is very well structured. In the beginning, the author lines out the four different worlds he has created giving each one of them its distinct features, characteristics, and issues. I truly appreciate the author for this decision of creating alternative worlds because he clearly mentions in his introduction that he did not want to speak for anyone but himself. Another thing I appreciate is the addition of the illustrations of the worlds. They made it a lot easier to visualize them accurately.

Although this is a novel, it actually consists of sixteen different stories that these worlds connect them together. There are several characters who interconnect these stories by appearing in multiple ones of them. These are characters that one can relate to, at least to some of them based on the reader’s life experiences. There is a milkmaid, a chief’s son, A carpenter’s daughter, a journalist, a grandfather, a preacher, and many more. What I did not realize until I finished reading the book is that all these characters were nameless! I remember reading a novel like that where the characters were nameless and it bothered me a lot. But in the case of this book, I did not even realize that characters were without names until the end which shows how well it is written in that aspect.

“There was a reason why philosophers preached self-love over all else, because if we accept our own body or mind, no matter their condition, on the day when the clock reverts to zero, and our bodies become dust, we will be at the right place.”

This is a very well written book. Kiran Bhat’s lyrical writing style and how he connected the stories together using some poetry made the move from a story to another flawless. It doesn’t feel like you are reading different stories. It makes you feel you are living in a big world with all these people who have their own personal problems that connect with each other and with their world. What makes this book so relevant are the crucial subjects it touched be it globalization, technology, industrialization, sexuality, abuse, greed, suicide, violence, mental illness, and several other important subjects that I am sure a lot of the readers will be able to relate to.

The author has brilliantly created his own fictional worlds in this book but all these worlds represent our own world in its true form and written in a subtle tone that will never feel intrusive or assertive. I feel many of the stories will make you pause the reading for some time to think about the important subjects before resuming to the next story. I appreciate it a lot when a book stirs up all the thoughts in my mind and makes me look at a certain subject from all different angles. We of The Forsaken World did all this to me.

[TeaAndBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are my honest views:

I have ensured not to include any spoilers.

This was truly a moving and intense read. The shifting stories and perspectives helped shape this story into a touching and intriguing novel.

Kiran Bhat has created a novel where I feel it has one central purpose- to show us the reality of the world we live in where we aren’t so different and are only divided by society. We can relate to one another if we tried hard enough to do so.

This novel is beautifully written and is poetic. For me, this stream of consciousness and lyrical nature is awe-inspiring and draws the reader in.

We see the difference in a tribal environment to a more modern city and this shows that we can be so different in lifestyle and culture, yet we are united in our existence- being human.

I will be telling all my friends to give this book a chance.

A great read and I would highly recommend!

[Daniel Chaikin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bhat has a interesting introduction where we presents himself, born in the US in Georgia, as an international personality looking for a kind of international kindness. He tells us he knows something like 12 languages and has visited something like 100 countries (that's not an exaggeration, just rounding down). He seems young but tells us in the afterward he has been writing this novel since 2011 based on a writing binge and long culling and refining process.

He gives us four locations and 16 characters and each has a voice, each story is in first person. The places are (1) something like an Amazon River tribe, (2) a small town in what is probably central Africa, (3) a big city that has lot in common with Jakarta, although it's fictionalized, and (4) a place distinctly reminiscent of current Bhopal, in southern India, site of the huge industrial disaster that took place there and killed and permanently injured thousands of people. I thought there was also a reference to Northern India, but probably was just confused. Actually I spent a lot time a little confused.

Not all locations are equal, and southern India has clearly the most love. As it evolves into a family narrative, it stands out as lowkey, the most intimate, least outrageous and just feels the most real. I was moved when a young boy narrator takes his younger sister to put a wishing lantern on the polluted but still beautiful lake that they cannot touch. Actually the entire scene leading up was interesting and complexly in construction. I'm glad it was there and it allowed to relax a bit after finding this tough going. I had gone long periods without picking it up. But once I read that section, I was able to skate through better.

On the whole I never took to Bhat's efforts. Just not my thing. I got a little tired of the first person narratives and the crazy situations that narrator seemed always to need to normalize. (Stephen King does this and I don't like it there either. So there is a taste aspect.)

Bhat contacted me here on Goodreads asking for a review. His request was so kind that it led me to look it up. It was a dollar on amazon. I'm happy he was able to get his writing out there and wish him well.

-----------------------------------------------

52. [24238629::We of the Forsaken World...] by [[Kiran Bhat]]
published: 2019
format: 177-page Kindle ebook
acquired: August 31
read: Aug 31 – Oct 23
time reading: 6 hr 27 min, 2.2 min/page
rating: 2½
locations: fictional - but similar to real places.
about the author: born and raised outside Atlanta, he claims about 17 homes, and highlights Bombay.

[Ivana Books Are Magic · Rating 4 out of 5]

We Of the Forsaken World can be read both as a novel and a collection of stories. There are several different locations in this book and about sixteen protagonists. The characters in this novel belong to different nations and live in different countries/continents, but their lives are often similar. The stories are typically set in smaller communities and thus often interconnected. The struggles these characters deal with are often universal, proving that humans aren't that different no matter where they live. Their problems are often the same. Much of the novel focuses on family relationships and dynamics. The author sometimes asks interesting questions and examines the true meaning of friendship and love. The dialogues are mostly well written, some better than others.

At first, I found the way chapters merge one into another confusing, but soon I got used to the fragmented story telling and the book started to make sense. I was curious to learn more of the characters' faiths. Besides an ecological theme that popped up in most stories, there were also recurring theme of abuse. Several characters have been abused (some mentally, some physically) and two of them are victims of trafficking. Most of the stories are quite dark. There is both violence and death in this book, incest, rape and abuse, so this is not a light reading but it does make one think. There is also some light in these stories, as depressive as they are at times. The stories, if somewhat unfinished, are quite memorable. My personal favourite was the story about the jungle people, I was really intrigued by the tribe's destiny and touched by the fates of most characters. I especially liked the depiction of the bond between the shaman woman and her husband.The writing seems a bit unpolished as it is not stylistically consistent, sometimes the narrative voices aren't distinct and naturally sounding. I would preferred quotations to the overuse of the word 'like', it felt a bit lazy and repetitive at times. Nevertheless, on the overall this book is a very interesting and engaging read. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.

[Kristina Coop-a-Loop · Rating 4 out of 5]

We of the Forsaken World by Kiran Bhat is an unusual and interesting novel that requires patient and detail-oriented readers. It’s very well-written and features a diversity of character voices, all authentic and fascinating.

Notice: I read this novel at the request of the author but paid for the Kindle ebook myself.

This novel is odd and not like anything else I’ve ever read. That may not seem like a compliment, but it is. Bookstores are filled with novels trying to capture the “it story” of the moment. Vampires, zombies, paranormal romances, millennial angst, Gen X angst, politics…so many of them tell the same story. Not that I don’t enjoy those novels (some of them), but We of the Forsaken World is different and unusual and I liked that. It also demanded my full attention. The novel is structured as a series of short-short stories, or vignettes, and even though all the voices are different, the reader eventually realizes that they revolve around two major events (the tribe’s eventual downfall and the “Incidence” of the chemical spill) and linked by major characters: the milkmaid, the journalist, the one-armed woman, and the warrior’s son. Each voice is distinctive and has a story to tell, although sometimes I got to the end and thought, “huh?” I was drawn into each of the vignettes and found most to be very emotionally powerful. The story of The Immigrant was a bit disturbing in that he seemed to have a really bitter attitude towards women and attempted to sexually assault a woman (but he was stopped by the mysterious one-armed woman). This particular vignette was especially odd, but I read it a week or so ago and here I am, still thinking about it. Some of the characters were unlikeable and I didn’t have anything superficially in common with them, but could relate to their problems and pain or joy.

I liked the prose. It’s skilled and places the reader solidly within the world Bhat created. He has some excellent phrases I loved: “His eyes skipped to the end of this thoughts” (16); “Whether it was in our language or not, he could not understand” (19); and “I walked until the sun closed its eye, the clouds curling over it” (109). The descriptions are vivid: “I remembered when my wife and I searched for her body in the pile of corpses. Hers was the face being eaten by the maggots. For many days after, no words came out of my mouth” (18). This one particularly haunts me as it describes the horror the man and his wife felt seeing their dead daughter, and the sadness that stopped him from speaking—a much better way of telling the reader how horrified and saddened the man was by the image of his dead child than simply writing: “I was horrified and saddened.” I also liked this description:

Fire is a ravenous creature. It consumes itself like temptation at the first thing it touches. It sparks and crackles and sputters, and clouds the carcass of what it has eaten with smoke (165).

While the idea of fire being a ravenous creature isn’t new, the rest of the description is original and vivid. Colored illustrations (possibly created by water color?) of the different regions of the novel’s world are a pleasant surprise.

The only serious problem I had with the structure of this novel is that it lacked momentum. Because there is no overarching plot or storyline to propel the story, when I finished one vignette, I could have conceivably put the book down for a while and wandered away. I had no sense of anticipation, no “omg-what’s-gonna-happen-next?!” feeling to keep me reading story after story. However, within the vignettes themselves, there are mini-plots with their own momentum.

I will argue with the text of the Introduction and Acknowledgements (which I first thought was spelled incorrectly but I googled it and apparently the “e” is the preferred British English spelling). In the Introduction, Bhat lays out his philosophy regarding the interconnectedness of the world and likens humans functioning as “a cell functions in a human body. We would see each other in the context of our individuality but realise how our individual actions both directly and indirectly affect the greater Earth…If we were to think of ourselves as part of a greater Earth collective, I am sure we would spend more time caring about the suffering of others, eliminate a lot of the excess and unnecessary consumerism that causes environmental catastrophes, and act for the sake of each other, act in the context of One” (3). Yes to all of that. What I object to is this:

I expect the individual reader to first be consumed by the vignettes of each individual’s story, but over the course of the novel to realise that four greater storylines are being told, and to become swept into these greater worlds. The reader is expected to handle this balancing act of individualising the narrators, constructing the stories of each world, and most importantly, being tossed back and forth through four localities the way technology is currently transcending our definitions of place…I want to throw out our pre-twenty-first century assumptions about how a place can be narrated, and guide readers to think globally (4).

I never ever think it is a good idea for the author to lecture the reader on how to read his novel or how he wants readers to interpret the novel and what they should take from it. The novel should stand on its own. If readers take from the story the message or theme the author wants them to, that’s great. But readers come to novels with their own experiences and interpret what they read through those experiences. You can’t demand a reader to “think globally” or “handle a balancing act of individualizing the narrators” just because you want them to. Once the novel is released into the wild, readers will make of it whatever they want (to many authors’ chagrin). The Introduction explains far too much for the reader and Bhat should trust his readers to be intelligent enough to figure these things out for themselves. The Acknowledgements section is similar to this—more overexplaining. Bhat delves into his editing process, something I don’t think is necessary and may not interest the reader.

Overall, We of the Forsaken World is an unusual and intellectually enjoyable read. It’s not light reading, but it has its moments of humor and is a pleasure to read. The prose is extremely well-written and vivid and the structure of the novel—how the characters are connected in some way (even though it seems at first glance they aren’t connected at all) is fascinating. I would like this novel to be more widely read because it’s so much better than a lot of the best-sellers out there. Maybe if the author throws in a few vampires and weretigers having sex with cute young blondes (of any gender) one of the major publishing houses will snap it up? If you are looking for a novel that’s thought-provoking and different from the mainstream, I recommend this one.

[Laura U · Rating 4 out of 5]

The human is a social being, and looking only at the big metropoles many of us live in does not make a fair image of the total of our world. There are still those who live in poor countries or in small gatherings. They are forgotten to us, but this book offers a recollection of four of these societies, all at different stages of evolution, from the tribe to the somehow big city.
The novel is genially built and I loved every bit of it. I just wished some stories were longer for the big picture of the book. The book was highly entertaining and easy to read because I made a game out of it.
Let me show you how the game works: you are given four descriptions of four worlds, then you are introduced to a new character who belongs to one of those worlds. You need to figure out what world the character belongs to. The clues might be places, events, or people. The catch is that the characters don't have names.
I found the fact that they didn't have names to be extremely important. They are from forsaken parts of the world, so they don't need names, they are basically nobodies, but some of them still stay with you. They have particularities that make them who they are, so I didn't feel the need to know their names.
I was excited every time I began another perspective because I wanted to figure out which world they belong to and how they will contribute to the story.
This book discusses some big topics like the impact of technology, industrialization, suicide, and sexuality. Even if the narrative is broken into many pieces, the themes somehow prevail. They are beyond individuals and affect the whole society.
Overall I deeply enjoyed this. It was different from other books I read. The author mentions that initially, he had hundreds of perspectives written down. I think it would've been confusing adding so many characters. I just wished the book was longer with the characters we already have. But otherwise, it was an amazing ride through four forgotten parts of our world.
I have to warn that the book contains explicit content and sensible topics, so it's not proper for the faint-hearted.

[Yogaa Lakshmi · Rating 5 out of 5]

We of the Forsaken World... tells us the story of four main characters living in four geographically separated places. The world-building in this book is beautiful and elegant. The story proves to be successful when it comes to making us realize the effect of digitalization,globalization and industrialization. Another lesson that I learned through this novel is that we need to realize our potential.
Initially, the book seems to be a collection of short stories but due to some recurring characters, we realize that there is a common thread between them and it is a clear-cut novel.
The story is narrated through 16 different view points, who live in four different place although the story revolves around four people -the journalist, the chief's son, the milkmaid and the one-armed women.
The story very relatable and is written in a poetical manner which leaves an everlasting effect on the reader. The book makes us realize the problems of the modern world. The character development is also elaborately done in such a way that the reader is able to feel the pain of the characters in this book.
Overall, I loved this book and I think that it is a book that everyone of today's world must read.
You can also read the review at https://aaycbookreviews.blogspot.com/...

[Boyko Ovcharov · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wake-up call

Very powerful introduction, backed up by sixteen poignant and heart-wrenching individual stories.
It is not an easy read, as it sounds like a wake-up call for all the humanity nowadays.
Touching on some hot topics like industrialization, pollution, environment, greed, exploitation, abuse etc., this book exposes some serious issues that need to be addressed by global society asap.
On the other hand, we [around the globe] definitely must preserve our cultural heritage, diversity, values etc.
In that respect this book might be classified as visionary.
It feels somewhat scientific, intelligent, and also a bit too dramatic, which in a way reflects the author's rich and multicultural background, including his extensive life experience.

It is definitely not ordinary and traditional.
So if you are looking for a thought-provoking read, you may try this one.

[David Lucero · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pleasant different type story for me, which is to say I usually read action, adventure, mystery, suspense, and thriller. I enjoyed it because it was different from my normal selection. The book unfolds with many narrations, but focuses on a few. The places and persons parallel our own and show us how our lives are intertwined from impoverished towns and villages, to modern cities. They face the same complexities we do, and character challenges and developments are easily related in this book.

The author writes with imagination and the story can be page-turning at times. I highly recommend it for people who enjoy stories involving character and life challenges.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bhat is a gifted writer but does require some engagement from his readers in following the narrative stream. His prose evokes a realistic picture of the environment and unwinds complex characters and their motives.

His theme of the triumph of good over evil is well done. I look forward to reading more works from this extraordinarily talented writer.

[Sapna · Rating 3 out of 5]

overall Rating - 2.9/5

This book contains 4 linear unrelated stories running parallel in 4 different parts of the world across several episodes. In every single episode, stories are connected by brief poems also the narrators of each story get change. It can be a little confusing in starting but eventually, with progress one begins to understand this complex structure.

On Individual basis of stories-
The Journalist- 2.8/5
The Chief's Son- 3.8/5
The Milkmaid- 4/5
The One-armed Woman- 2.5/5

The only common thing among stories I found was that in a way this book deals with the struggles in life in various different dimensions, in this changing world. It shows several moments/issues which are true, happening but rarely talked. The detailing is good especially of 'The Milkmaid'. It is difficult to judge whether is it a good or bad book but it is more like accepting the thing that yes it is as it is.

'The journalist' reminds me of Bhopal Gas tragedy, 'The Chief's Son' put a light on the struggle in the life of simple societies of the modern world much like Sentinelese. Yes, sometimes it seems related to the real world.

Personally I did not like the language of the book, I found it difficult, confusing and like torture to read. The new experiment of storytelling does not turn out to be very successful here. The writer should have done better as the stories have potential especially - 'The Chief's Son'.

[Vishakha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth a read, intense emotional

Such a deep, dark story. Filled with miseries, grief, and hollowness. So, the book theme is based on human's moral value and integrity has degraded to such a level where one can not get back. Stories from a different perspective, different misery had one explanation that we humans have failed to keep peace around us. Failed to keep each other safe. Complex emotions are embedded in each story. Quotes that are reminding us about our ancestors.
Rate: 4/5🌟
It can be hard to digest for some people who are sensitive to intense emotions. Like me, an empath would need an hour extra just to come out of this book. I was unable to take it as the author has given. I appreciate her writing skills, which had left a strong imprint on me.

*Highly Recommended*

[Hákon Gunnarsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I bought this book, and I’ve never met the author Kiran Bhat, but we are friends here on goodreads.

we of the forsaken world… is in some sense a borderline work. It’s in a way a short story collection, but also a novel. In fact it is neither of those two thing, but something in between, and I find that quite interesting.

It is in four parts, each with four different voices or four short stories, there are four main threads, and it takes place in four different locations. There is nothing that directly connects the four threads apart from the general subject or the mood of the piece. Sometimes it feels sad, sometimes angry, but mostly it is melancholic.

Happiness isn’t the subject of this book, maybe lack there off, and perhaps even more the disconnect between people. Having something to say, but having difficulty getting it across to someone that will listen. That’s one part of it.

Another part is about the characters place in society, and in the world. Were they fit in. A lot of them seem very much on the outside, and that is not always a good thing. Often this is powerfully expressed.

That is not to say this is a flawless work. I thought the language use was sometimes a little stiff. It wasn’t something that really stopped me from reading, but it slowed it down occasionally.

All in all, I thought it was an interesting book, and think I would like to read more of his work. I might even read this one again when enough time has passed.

[soph.connects.the.dots · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

•••••

"We were so much more than our calamity. We were a vibrant town mentioned in many great novels, with a history of hundreds of years."

I’m not sure what I was truly expecting when I started reading this story.
I was unsure at first if I would like it, because it seemed a little out of the genre comfort-zone that I usually go for. But…
This was good. It was the kind of story that made me think and feel. I wish I read more books like this.

It was really interesting to hear so many different perspectives in such ways that felt very realistic.
This is a trip down many walks of life that are so different from each other and yet....somehow not. They all have despair, longing, or a hope for tomorrow that just hasn’t come yet in the waiting. Kiran Bhat is a talented writer because he gives all these different people such unique voices.



I think the purpose of this novel, if I may be so bold as to try and reason it, is the struggle through life. The realization that we might not all be so different from each other as we think. That the day to day activities might differ, but the feelings or frustrations we all harbor remain similar.

“The world around us is constantly changing, but the purpose of life does not waver.”

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kiran Bhat is a gifted storyteller, a deep thinker who is our gentle tour guide for "We of the Forsaken World".
Leading us out of our own little microcosms and showing us others, often the less fortunate, to make us think, make us realize that even though we are distanced by kilometers and cultures, we are connected by the common threads of community and humanity.
Each life has value and is important, whether part of a primitive tribe or advanced society. It's up to us to decide how to take care of our planet and each other.
Thank you Kiran for the beautiful reminder and precious message in the gift of your book.

[Richard Newton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a melancholy book written with what feels like sincere emotion by a writer who I feel may go on to write a great work, but for me at least, this is not it. Whilst the book has occasionally strong elements with good writing and insights into human nature and culture, overall it has too many weaker parts to really work for me.

The book has an interesting structure, with multiple voices with separate but at the same time interwoven stories. I have seen this technique used before, and at times the author handles this very well. And the way he hands over between the voices is a nice touch so you get a sort of discontinuous continuity, (if that makes sense!) The stories themselves are interesting, but are not uniformly well written. Some of the voices are better than others. Parts of the book were 4 star, parts I would struggle to give 2 stars.

One of the main problems with the book for me is that it is too deliberate. Let me give an example. The novel starts with an introduction from the author about his beliefs. For me, a novel should need no introduction - if it does not stand alone without explanation from the author, then it is not a good enough novel. This explaining tone of the book continues in the first section "maps", which for me added little.

When I read a novel, of course I am reading the authors words, but I don't want the author's plan or intention to be transparent. I want the novel to stand on its own merit without description or explanation. A good novel is not about what the author believes or intends - it is about how the reader responds. This response should not need guiding outside of the novel itself, if it does then the book has not worked.

Another weakness was the poetry. There was poetry between many of the sections of the book. I always think it is a bold move for a novelist to include poems, and if a writer is going to do this they need to be really strong. These did not work as poems, although they are sincerely written and the content does add to the book, it is just as poetry they are not that good. Poems are not merely the stylized formatting of prose, and yet this is what much of the poetry in this book read as to me.

I feel I am in the minority on this as other reviewers have rated this far higher. Well that's books for you - different people, different responses. There is at times in this book a hint of real potential. Perhaps that will one day be realised. Every book is an end point but also part of the author's journey. As an end point, this is a flawed book. As part of a writer's journey it may well be a step towards something profound.

[Swati · Rating 3 out of 5]

My rating is 3.5

“Whether we are at home or in a public spot or caught in a traffic jam or walking into a movie, we can stop and look at the other people there and realize that in pain and in joy they are just like me,” Pema Chodron says in her book “Taking the Leap.”

I see a similar premise in Kiran Bhat’s We of the Forsaken World, a collection of stories strung together by recurring characters and timelessness. There are sixteen interconnected stories based on themes like poverty, abuse, revenge, and love.

I loved the unique structure of the book and the notion of a single world where no matter the location some things remain the same. And no matter who or where the reader they can relate to the story in some way. That said, the stories do unfold in four locations with nameless narrators and perspectives. There is a milkmaid, a journalist, a grandfather, a street vendor and so on. In his introduction, Bhat lays out points to keep in mind before the reader embarks on this journey
“The reader is expected to handle this balancing act of individualising the narrators, constructing the stories of each world, and most importantly, being tossed back and forth through four localities the way technology is currently transcending our definitions of place.”

I liked how Bhat tests the boundaries of textuality, and the relationship between the text and the reader. By placing the stories in a very global context, Bhat wants to “guide readers to think globally.” This distant-yet-familiar, fictional-yet-real approach makes the narrative pliant and striking to read.

Yet, personally, I found the adaptability restricted to a cerebral level. Although the characters go through a lot of different situations, I found it difficult to empathise. I didn’t feel pulled towards any of the characters nor did I root for any of them. I felt like a bystander watching the goings-on rather than be a part of the scene.

Part fable, part magical realism, part gritty reality, We of the Forsaken World leaves you with a few thoughts. But not the deep feelings needed to pursue them.

Thanks to Kiran Bhat for kindly sending a copy for review!

[L.S. Popovich · Rating 3 out of 5]

The interconnectedness of humans as organisms and organelles amid industrialization, doubt, and misunderstanding is ripe for commentary, satire and immersive journalistic writing. Yet, depicting the synthesis of cultures is not always an easy task. Luckily, this book conveys global perspectives that comes from a place of deep sympathy and understanding. I found parts of it idealistic in the best sense. Using well-honed aesthetic motifs and equipped with a humble attitude toward humanity’s flawed and myriad nature, the author gets to the heart of what makes us human.

It opens with hand-drawn maps as well-composed as the prose segments. Continuing with the elegance of a prose poem, the shocking documentary information to come at once exposes the changes wrought on cultures by the advent of industry technology and expounds upon the widespread contagion of consumerism. It also has a lot to say about the impact of countries and cultures on one another, on a personal as well as on a macroscopic level.

At bottom, We of the Forsaken World... is a very realistic perspective on modern lives from an author who has traveled widely. I would read more of his work.

You will find many universal themes explored with subtlety and complexity. This book is capable of showing you new realities, of introducing you to people you may never meet, but whom you can come to understand or at least seek to understand. It is a varied and exotic combination of imaginative viewpoints and real-world experience.

The four central narratives experiment with setting and description, while giving rise to thought-provoking moments. The dialogue and narration is often witty or acerbic, but always intelligent and eloquent.

Definitely a unique and satisfying reading experience, no matter where you're from.

[Bam cooks the books · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author has asked me to read and review his novel: I was very pleased to do that. I found him to be a very fine writer, delving into the hearts and minds of a variety of characters as they react to the changing world around them. The stories are told in a series of connecting vignettes, each ending with insightful bits of poetry.

There are four communities visited to tell some stories of the people of the forsaken world: the tribe of the silt; a global village; the lake of the sacred salt; and the black city. I found the female characters' stories to be the most compelling--that of the chief's first wife; the milkmaid; the sex columnist; the one-armed homeless lady; the shaman; and finally the old grandma in the rainforest as her family tries to flee as loggers approach. As their fearless leader appears out of the fog and demands them to stay or he will kill them, she thinks: "What a failure this chief had come to be. I had known his father, and little of his cunning or charisma had been passed on. This chief had no talent for governance, but wanted to call this land his alone. He was a man who would sacrifice the lives of his tribe for the sake of his ego..." Oh, how this reminded me of our own fearless leader!

Thank you, Kiran Bhat, for providing me with a review copy of your book. I will look forward to reading more of your work in the future.

[Luis Humberto Molinar Márquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

[English review + Reseña en español]

We of the Forsaken World..., by Kiran Bhat
Iguana Books. 2019
178 pages.
Genre / Thematic: Fiction / Awareness

We of the Forsaken World... is a choral novel that tells, in sixteen successive voices, the stories of four geographically separated populations, but thematically united by the global collapse of human consciousness and the physical destruction of the world that gives us sustenance and shelter.

An indigenous patriarchal tribe —hidden from the outside world by the limits of the jungle— experiences moments of agitation related to the succession of power, but it must also face the external violence and deforestation that’s looming over it.

In a small community installed on the sides of a rural road, a group of carefree, lazy youngsters armed with cell phones destroy the reputation of an innocent girl who considered them her friends.

The future of a town with high cultural and tourist value is tragically truncated when "The Incident" —a lethal catastrophe caused by a pesticide factory— targets its population.

A city with large skyscrapers, huge economic contrasts and popular superstitions rooted in its population, conceals a network of sex trafficking and the normalization of abuse against women.

The sixteen yarns could be perfectly read as short stories contained in themselves. However, their narratives form four distinguishable tetrads, each of which revolves around a particular person (the firstborn of the village chief who must prove himself; the humble milkmaid who only seeks to live and love in freedom; the journalist who needs to tell the story of a family and a town destroyed by neglect; and the dispossessed woman who wants revenge on those who trafficked with her). In turn, these four worlds are related to each other by subtle connections that, after all and making a broader reading, unite us all humans of the past, present and future.

We of the Forsaken World... is a very well written book that has been exceptionally conscientiously edited and which I highly recommend.

---------

We of the Forsaken World..., por Kiran Bhat
Iguana Books. 2020
178 páginas.
Género / Temática: Ficción / Concientización

We of the Forsaken World... es una novela coral que narra, a dieciséis voces sucesivas, las historias de cuatro poblaciones separadas geográficamente, pero unidas temáticamente por el desmoronamiento global de la conciencia humana y la destrucción física del mundo que nos da sustento y cobijo.

Una tribu patriarcal indígena —oculta del mundo exterior por los límites de la selva— experimenta momentos de agitación relacionados con la sucesión del mando, pero además debe enfrentarse a la violencia externa y a la deforestación que se ciernen sobre ella.

En una pequeña comunidad instalada a las orillas de un camino rural, un grupo de jóvenes vaquetones armados con teléfonos celulares se encarga de destruir la reputación de una chica inocente que los consideraba sus amigos.

El futuro de un pueblo con alto valor cultural y turístico se ve trágicamente truncado cuando “El Incidente” —una catástrofe letal causada por una fábrica de pesticidas— hace blanco de su población.

Una ciudad con grandes rascacielos, enormes contrastes económicos y supersticiones populares arraigadas en su población, oculta una red de tráfico sexual y la normalización del abuso en contra de las mujeres.

Las dieciséis narraciones podrían ser perfectamente leídas como pequeños relatos contenidos en sí mismos. Sin embargo, las historias forman cuatro tétradas distinguibles que giran cada una en torno a una persona en particular (el primogénito del jefe de la aldea que debe demostrar su valía; la humilde lechera que sólo busca vivir y amar en libertad; el periodista que necesita contar la historia de una familia y un pueblo destruidos por la negligencia; y la mujer desposeída que desea vengarse de quienes traficaron con ella). A su vez, esos cuatro mundos se relacionan entre sí por sutiles conexiones que, a final de cuentas y haciendo una lectura más amplia, nos unen a todos los humanos del pasado, presente y futuro.

We of the Forsaken World... es un libro muy bien escrito, editado a toda conciencia y que recomiendo ampliamente.

[Alison Quigley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much as I tried to enjoy this book I found the characters too sketchily drawn and the prose too self-consciously stylistic. In terms of the four storylines, I thought I would enjoy disparate narratives with common links but what was sacrificed, I fear, was the tension that comes from a more unified piece of work. I stopped reading at around page seventy seven, since, at this point I realised I wasn’t invested in any particular character’s future. Having said this, there was still a lot to admire in his writing. I enjoyed the journalistic overviews of the settings at the start, and I applaud the author’s bravery in attempting this structure. The author also brings a high degree of thought and scholarship to his writing, the same as he does for his book reviews on Goodreads. I look forward to seeing what he tackles next and thank him for offering me this free copy to review.

[Rishika · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a thing for parallel story-lines. Particularly, where plots converge or you discover all the characters are connected- It's clichéd yet fun! We of the Forsaken world could fall into this category and so it does but in a very unusual way.

WOTFW offers commentary on the commonality of human struggle by looking at various stories and characters who do not appear to share much in common at the first look. The individual stories are quite interesting and have the potential to become distinct novels. What I did not enjoy and the reason why it took me some time to complete the book was that it was complicated - not in regards to the plot but in the way of its presentation. Each chapter deals with a different character narrating their perspective of their story. I understand the objective behind it is to to unite their voices in some manner and as such, I do appreciate what the author is trying to do. However, as a reader my first intent is to get involved in the book and the constant change in narration without as much distinction in the voice of characters makes it confusing to do so. Maybe it is a book which requires another reading.

There are four major plots in book -

A. The town with the chemical spill
B. An isolated tribe
C. The Milkmaid (my favorite)
D. Sex-Trafficking in a major city

A total of 16 voices are present in the book to give a holistic perspective of the story. Every chapter ends with a thread of thought which flows into an entirely different story with a new character to weave them onto an all-encompassing human tapestry. The book deals with wide range of issues including environmental degradation, sexism, mental illness, violence and abuse. Despite the geographical separations, many of the characters - who are 'forsaken' by their peers- suffer from the same kind of oppression and anxiety. The book tries to bring to the fore that despite what separates us from others, there's much more which unites. An important lesson to remember and imbibe in our times.

[Astha Vyas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been quite an interesting read, specially in a scenario where our reality is much more distorted than ever, yet everything seems much clearer.

Kiran Bhat, in this visionary novel has created some very distinctive stories and spun them into one book, with the common thread of Globalisation. All of this coming together creates a narrative worth a read.

The terrains created in this book seem like metaphor to a larger World and real places. The gritty use of language barrier, social background, fluidity amidst people of different strata, conflicts, mistrust; are so well adapted that you would rarely not ponder over them.

There are sixteen distinguished voices, which all have their own stories to tell. Milkmaid, a journalist who interviews a shattered man who has lost his family in chemical spill, fast food vendor, a gay man trying to find love and many more. All of these characters feel real and life like. The secondary characters are also created with much finesse.

With the cinematic narratives to detailed insights into human behaviour, Author has left no stone unturned. The vices are explained through characters such that, they being part of all the people across tribes, social strata and geographical locations. Bhat’s writing is almost poetic and lucid. I must give extra credits to the Author for making such a wholesome novel.

Also, I thoroughly enjoyed the maps in the beginning that would describe the geography of the places, giving a background to the upcoming stories. These small anecdotes maintained the pace and understanding of the larger picture.

Final thoughts: The concept is original, interesting and will keep you hooked to the very last of the book. This book makes you think and proves you wrong at multiple levels. I would definitely recommend this book to all those who love reading.

Book Information:

Pages: 178

Language: English

Genre: Fiction

My Rating: 4/5

[Jacques Coulardeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE NIRVANA OF COLONIAL INJUSTICE

KIRAN BHAT – WE OF THE FORSAKEN WORLD … – 2020

We are told the author has visited more than one hundred countries, but that is not really what is important with this book. Maybe that is the author’s necessary experience to construct this novel, but I think or believe that what is most important in the novel is what is in the novel, not the biography of the author. And the very first element I noticed is the fact that the novel is entirely built on a triadic architecture. And the very first triad is that of the topographic vision of this world, with even some images to make this triadic world visible.

Three different spaces are set side by side with two separations. A river that locks up the primeval world of the forest and the tribes living there, or rather dying there because of some epidemic, smallpox obviously, brought by some Thatched men who are cutting the trees in the forest, exporting the wood and leaving a desolate empty space behind them in which the primeval tribes cannot in any way survive and, in fact, they are torn apart by internal rife, one chief of the tribe deciding to impose his absolute power and to use his “supportive soldiers” to eliminate all other members of the tribe till the first-born son of this chief, who is considered effeminate and weak, decides in his turn to get rid of this father of his who has always rejected him and to bring survival to the remnants of the tribe. This primeval world is not forsaken. It is absolutely destroyed and what is surviving, those who are surviving in this tribe have to move away from their destroyed environment and their future will be alienation in one of the two other worlds.

The second and third worlds are both on the other side of the river (the river can be seen, as the metaphor of the Amazon or the Congo, or some other big river like those in “Mesopotamia” or “India”). This other side of the river is cut in two by the opposition South-North which is the direct allusion to the political division of the world between the underdeveloped or undeveloped South and the industrialized North. Those two worlds are dominated by smartphones and televisions. People are entirely fascinated and mesmerized by their screens, small or big. This is a direct criticism of our modern world where technology becomes a tremendous freedom but also a horrible enslavement. These two worlds are also separated by their two languages. Neither the South, not the North can speak or understand properly the language of the other side. We can think of many situations of this sort in the world. The South as opposed to the North in the US meaning that two American dialects and some say they are two different languages, divide the USA, and these two dialects are spoken by the whites. In fact, there should be a third one, Black American English, Ebonics as some actually call it. And there we do have a different language creolized from the dominant English of the ancient plantations, hence what has become the dialect of the South, Deep or not.

We can also think of the opposition between Tamil and Hindi in India, or between Sinhala and Tamil in Sri Lanka. Yet we cannot extend it to the whole of Asia because the language is exactly the same in the two halves of Vietnam today reunified, or because in China even if there are great differences between the various spoken dialects, the writing system is the same for all these dialects. Quite different is the case of Italy where standard northern Italian has little to do with Neapolitan Italian, a dialect which is, in fact, a different language. Same division in France between Oil that became standard French, and Occitan that remains still today a different language, not to mention Breton, Picard and the Germanic languages of Lorraine and Alsace. What is important here is the fact that the South is essentially a roadside commercial city with small stores all along the road, and, in fact, very little in the hinterland of this roadside lining up of small stores, or shops. This South is poor and has little future in itself, even if the Carpenter can have a booming business, and the Milker does have a rich farm, rich for his surrounding environment of poverty.

The last world, the North is, in fact, the only world that has some real density, some real inner contradiction between its downtown district with rich businesses and shopping malls, and its suburbs where most people who work in this downtown area are surviving at least as some kind of middle class. In this downtown area, there are also people who are more a fauna for tourists than a real human community. They are all sorts of street vendors (or hawkers), thieves and prostitutes that target the tourists and the bored middleclass workers who are looking for some kinky excitement. But even after I have said that it is important to keep in mind that the social dimension is not really the most crucial dimension of the novel. The novel is constructed on individual characters who are providing us with slices of their existential experiences or misadventures. These characters are like lurid vignettes that get often grotesque. Each one should be analyzed in detail, and these particular individuals are from the three different worlds and they have or establish connections between the main two worlds, those I have presented as the second and third worlds, both on the other non-primeval bank of the river that cuts the universe in two.

This triadic structure is the real ferment of the decaying vision given to us by the author, and this ternary ferment is utterly Shakespearian. It is the very disruption that creates history, conflict, tragedy or comedy by bringing down anything that could be balanced, that would like to be balanced, but ONE-TWO-THREE and the whole equilibrium comes tumbling down and collapses at our own feet. This world, this metaphor of our universe is condemned to die, to rot and end up in shame, crime, and death. No escape from this fate.

But this vision is deeply in phase with Jacques Lacan’s conception of the individual inner and social dynamic. The individual subject, the Ego, is confronted with three poles that are both building and animating him or her. Deep in the carnal body, you have the impulses, desires, needs that have to be satisfied for survival to be possible, from eating to drinking, to emptying the exhaust and rejects of this physiological body. This has little to do with any sentiment, feeling, passion. It is only the normal functioning of the body machine. The Ego has to find in the world and in his life the various ways to satisfy these impulses, needs, and desires, and he or she has to do it with two other poles literally confronting each other in him or her. On one side the Authority of society, education and the family, most of the time, the father or some father figure, and in this novel father figures are all of them outrageous, starting with the father who is unable to tell his son what he is expecting from him, and who would anyway not get it because he does not know how to have authority over his son, and then the gallery of portraits is long. And in the Ego of the individual this Authority pole is confronted to and confronting the Ideal of the Ego, what Lacan calls the Phallus, and mind you even girls have phalluses: the dreamed, fantasized, mental construct of what the Ego would like to be, to become, to reach in his life, to achieve on this earth. The most explicit character in this novel that reveals this inner conflict between these three poles, or objectives, or limitations, or potentials, is the businessman’s wife called Lyrica, her pen name. She is so much exploded into three layers or tiers or, in fact, dangling dingles that she is unable to cope with life. Everything for her is cut up into three. Her husband has three lives. Up to 26 when she met him (she was 28) and she declares she does not know this man. In fact, she never tried to know it. She was locked up and manacled into what she was when 28 and when she met her future husband at the university in some poetry classes and creative writing seminars. His father encouraged or overlooked that freedom during these few years of university adventure since boys will be boys, sowing wild oats of all sorts. That’s the only man she was in love with, and she did not see that after these university years the son did exactly what this freedom enabled him to do: he became the businessman his father had always expected him to be, and he became an honest, hard-working, fair and just money-man, maybe banker or whatever a money-man can be. She hated this one because he did not really care anymore for her creative writing, though she was very successful.

She developed then a frustration, a dissatisfaction that led her to extreme crazy initiatives. When her son was twelve, she nearly killed him by taking him along in her attempt to commit suicide. They were both saved by the father and husband. He sent the son to some boarding-school to protect him from her. He set her on a treatment that was supposed to pacify her, in other words to vegetalize her into being just that, a vegetable, which she refused despite the power of her personal maid who is rather an enforcer of the treatment. She constantly speaks to herself or the world in repetitive triads. Here are a few:

P.189 - “I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna!”
P. 189-90 – “Be a responsible girl.” “Be a good girl.” “Be a smart girl.”
P. 191 - “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!”
P. 192 – “I love you, I love you, I love you!” [The absolutely impossible triad, purely mental]
P.192 - “I’m not a toy, I’m not a toy, I’m not a toy!”
P.194 – “I was collapsing, I was fainting, I was getting hit by the emotions in each and every part of my nerves.”
P.196 - “Sorry, sorry, sorry,”

And even the house is triadic with three stories: P.193 – “We went down all three flights of stairs in line and into the foyer” And this “we” is the wife, the husband and the maid (the enforcing torturer) to meet the son who has finally come back. He is writing, but as a journalist, and he went back to the “South” where his mother came from (alienated herself out of), and we have met him in other sections doing his job there with people whose language he does not speak and who do not understand his northern language. Supposedly he went there to rediscover the world of his mother but without the language, it was a very mute voyage since the southern locals do not speak the northern language. What a colonial vision anyway for a journalist to go to a country whose language he does not speak, and yet he wants to interview local people and get their feelings and ideas about their life, about life in general, because for this journalist there is only one life, as there is only Civilization (capital C) for westerners in our real world, a civilization that is universal, unique and absolute. It is at times called “human rights.” Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Angela Davis, among others, explained to us how vain this notion of “human rights” is in the West when thirty million people in the USA are uninsured with a pandemic just starting to escalate at the most rapid Italian speed. In the two prisons in Denver, they discovered two days ago there were 22 COVID-19-positive prisoners in an enclosed, cramped and crammed space with permanent contact with others. Just test them all and you will find the prisoners are 80 or 90% COVID-19- positive. How many deaths will that mean in two months? But who cares since only 10, maybe 20% of them are White Anglo-Saxon Protestant individuals who have sinned and will be forgiven in due time? If they survive!

So this woman finally can reunite with her son, but she is from the South and he is from the North, so the reunion is the reunification of a drastically divorced pair, and if you add the father, that’s a drastically dramatically divorced triadic family. The wife will accept to take her medication and she will become a social zombie but able to more or less be presentable in some social or family events.

That’s the light Kiran Bhat is providing us with and this light or enlightenment, nirvana in Sanskrit, nibbana in Pali, is in perfect phase with his name. Kiran (Devanagari: किरण) is a unisex given name. It originates in the Sanskrit askadas kiraṇa, meaning "ray" or "ray of light" or "beam of light." Bhat (Sanskrit: भट, Urdu: بھٹ‎) is a common surname in the Indian subcontinent. The Bhat surname is associated with the Brahmin varna (caste) of Hinduism. Historians state the surname is a distorted form of Bhatta, which originates from Sanskrit (भटट), meaning "scholar" according to the Brāhmaṇa [For the definition of ब्राह्मण brāhmaṇa, with the last syllable showing a Vedic accent, used as a noun as "masculine (having to do with Brahman or divine knowledge), one learned in the Veda, theologian, priest, Brāhman, a man of the first four castes"; and definition of ब्राह्मण brāhmaṇa, with only first syllable showing a Vedic accent, used as an adjective as "adjective (i) belonging to a Brāhman, Brāhmanic", see: Arthur Anthony Macdonell, 1924, p. 199).]

The vision of women in the novel is very pessimistic about their future. Most of them are the victims of their fathers, they become prostitutes or promiscuous lovers, they get insane and commit suicide, or they become violent but are unable to commit the slightest just and fair killing because they are petrified by the male targets they could and should shoot dead or slowly dying. This level of alienation is most visible in the one-armed woman. Her alienation is so deep that she does not have the concept of “future,” she does not see anything in the future for her because the future does not exist. There are only the present and her hunger for something, food, drink sex, whatever, and when she is satisfied, no matter how and in what circumstances, she can go to bed and sleep, if she has a bed, though the steps in front of the main statue in the main square are just good enough for her, and this satisfaction will become eventually hunger again and she will look for some satisfaction remembering her past satiety. No future here for her, just the present and the past. And they tell you have to remember the past to govern your present. That’s so true with this one-armed woman, that she has no future, only her present dominated by her past. And like the Milkmaid, when she will no longer find her satisfaction in reproducing her past in her present, she will commit suicide and society will cover it up as anything accidental, incidental. The Incident, this chemical accident that killed thousands of people by liberating tons of a killing chemical in the atmosphere and river, a catastrophe that became in the press, the dominant press of course because there is no alternative, the Incident, just as if an engineer had by total accident stepped on an ant and killed it...

[J.C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author offered a digital copy of this recently written book in exchange for an honest review.
I would say first of all that reading Kiran Bhat’s introduction helps with the lateral structure of the content of the book. There are four different settings, each enclosing a story encapsulating someone’s life, which could be in any one of many locations in the modern world, but definitely centred on people who are in some way disadvantaged or victimised by their context. Moving instantly from one location to another reflects digital screens where we switch locations and scenarios with rapidity, not engaging or connecting, with no vision that our lives are interconnected in their effect upon our common home, our planet. This book moves through characters who are either personally or universally connected, but rather hopelessly, as their stories get darker and more of their individual and common suffering is revealed and endured.
“The reader is expected to handle this balancing act of individualising the narrators, constructing the stories of each world, and most importantly, being tossed back and forth through four localities the way technology is currently transcending our definitions of place . . . . This fictional world is designed to evoke those lives and pull those people out of obscurity in a way that honours the fullness of their being.”
Kiran Bhat (Introduction).

The first glimpse at each of these worlds brings four characters into being who reveal the agonies, desires and complications of their daily lives through interaction with others. This is in keeping with the development of the theme of interconnectedness. I did find that I could enter into each person’s emotional ‘place’, and the strongest portrait for me was that of ‘the chief’s first wife’, with whom I felt any woman might identify. The interaction between her and her husband was believable and well managed; however I found the dialogue in the other stories unsatisfactory, although I realise that in the first portrait this arises from issues of language and culture within the storyline. Dialogue that is at best unarresting does reflect reality but it may be an indulgence a writer can’t afford, unless he happens to be Harold Pinter. I remember once reading a short story that repeated desultory conversation overheard in a bus stop, which I thought was pointless! This book is nothing like that but I definitely felt that with this particular structure the dialogue should have a pivotal rôle. Having said that, I felt that Kiran’s descriptions and imagery were consistently well crafted, as he uses detail to introduce and situate his characters, and the reader feels how much he identifies with them and their individual situations. His intelligence, commitment and compassion shine through.

In the later rounds of the events that the characters live through, people who have been present, or peripheral, in the first scenes, come to the fore and the focus shifts, much as it would if you were on the internet and followed a link that looked interesting, or gave you a different slant on the news coverage. The book has a strong and well-written ending, which I was glad about, because I had lost interest a bit somewhere in the middle. That, I think, is my fault, because I’m not used to reading in this way and I found it hard to believe in any of the characters except for the chief’s first wife.

I’m not sure if I should say that the narrative run is about coping, or living with lack of choice, or whether it would be possible to take a more positive message from it. It’s not the sort of book I would normally read and I feel I’m not the best person to review it for the author, who writes very powerfully and intimately and who connects deeply with his themes and characters. He does what he says he wants to do – he lifts them out of obscurity and pays them honour.

[Megan Rivera · Rating 4 out of 5]

“My body was shaking the entire time I spoke, and I felt something worse than a demon lodged deep in my chest. I picked myself up. I launched into another little dance and asked once more for the spirit to come.” It was a fast paced book and I enjoyed reading this book. There are several characters who interconnect these stories by appearing in multiple ones of them. The characters that one can relate to, at least to some of them based on the reader’s life experiences. There’s a milkmaid, a chief’s son, A carpenter’s daughter, a journalist, a grandfather, a preacher, and many more. I enjoyed reading about the real life experience about all of them. It was an interesting book and was well written.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Everything in this world is relative. I can never have your life. You will never know mine.’

Four different parts of the world, sixteen different lives. How are they connected? The four different locations are illustrative of a world under stress, a world being destroyed in different ways: a tourist town being destroyed by an industrial accident; jungle being destroyed by loggers; a sprawling metropolis where many live on the street; an impoverished village with little connection to the world beyond.

And in these places, the stories of sixteen people are told. As one story ends, it connects with another: a chain of humanity forms and reforms. Some characters appear in more than one story.
Each of the characters is important, but one in particular held my attention: the milkmaid.

I struggled occasionally with the language: ‘Our cottage was dilapidating, and I knew my son was often bored living in our tree-lined suburb’. Yes, the meaning is clear but (for me at least) read awkwardly. But for much of the time I was swept up in the stories, wanting to know what would happen next and whether (in some cases) situations would improve. The sixteen characters are defined by occupation or relationship: they are unnamed representatives of their respective worlds.

I finished the novel, thinking about some of the characters and the problems before them. This is a novel which invites you to think about people: both the human condition and the human impact on the world.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author provided a copy of this book in exchange for a review.


This book has its politics and its heart in the right place, but at times, the experimental structure makes it more of a challenge than it needs to be, otherwise I would have given it another star.

So, we have four sort-of-fictional places - a remote tribal village in the Amazon, a Southern Indian town decimated by a chemical plant disaster, a rural village somewhere in Africa, and a minor city somewhere-somewhere. In each place, we meet a different set of characters carrying on a sort-of-connected dialogue about the challenges, struggles, and searing pain of human existence. Each place is subject to the caprice of outside forces - an offstage monster called "progress" - and each set of characters responds to these forces as well as they can, often failing to make good decisions, but trying anyway.

What makes this book worth the read is how even in these diverse places and voices, we can find some images of ourselves - positive and negative - to provoke contemplation of our own struggles in this era of globalization, and scarcity, and anxiety, and all the other forces that befuddle us in the 21st century.

Worth the read for its sensitivity, so don't shy away from the formal challenge of the book's structure.

[Divya Mahajan · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** stars or ***** stars I am confused. This book deserves 5 stars for the narrative characters and affect on readers mind .
We of the Forsaken World by Kiran Bhat is a novel where four different narratives run parallel in different settings. Though these seem unrelated to each other there is an invisible common thread that binds them all together. This is a book that isn't a pleasure read but requires patience and concern for survival of humanity and the earth to read it. The 4 settings though vastly different from each other ; each having its own set of characters interplay; are all similarly affected by betrayal , greed and devastation. This is not an easy read.
But some how I feel something missing . I would loved the invisible thread to more visible at the end and the parallel stories didn't have so many breaks but that's personal opinion
Bonus is the poetry interspersed in between so I raised the rating from 3 stars to 5 stars