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BOOK REVIEW: Based on Lies – It Begins by Debarshi Kanjilal

Based on Lies: It Begins is the first in a series of two novellas published in 2017. The main element used in this novel is of psychological thriller following the life of Anuraag Sanyal, the protagonist of the novella. The writing certainly displays the dark corners of an imaginative mind.

The plot starts with the protagonist sitting in the middle of the night, suffering from insomnia writing in his notepad about the event of his past life. The storyline somewhat follows this pattern and a reader gets to see the Anuraag’s present too. He is having a troubled marriage for five years and had a lover in past, and one as a nearby cafe owner. Each new chapter decipher a new phase or a new skeleton in the closet of Anuraag’s past. Other characters that play their roles are essential, which I realised upon reading this novella. They all have involvement in events that turns into violent crimes where some have been victims to those crimes and otherwise some were the performers of them. As it is said in the blurb of the book, there are no innocent people in this book.

Along with these storylines, I find the characterisation interesting and is the spine of the novella. As you know, a novella has limited number of pages and the author, Debarshi does a great job with forming the whole dramatise personae and making them interesting in just mere 100 pages. Each character seems to have a dark past and are living with half voidness in their present. The twists and turns that are the outcome of actions of these characters, are so unexpected that they produce the thrill of reading a story. I could not put it down and read it in one go.

The story is fast paced, written using first person narrative voice. In the end, the reader is left with some of the questions of his own and the author has promised to answer them all in the second tier of this novella which is releasing this year. This book is an unusual and a unique book in terms of Indian contemporary fiction.

If you like psychological thrillers or a fan of Chuck Pahalnuik’s writing, this novella is definitely for you. It’s short, fast-paced and thrilling at the same time.

4 out of 5!

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