BOOK REVIEW: Anon by Bhavani Iyer

Bhavani Iyer is a screenwriter for many Hindi films and television shows, so when I received this book, I knew I would not be disappointed. Anon is her debut work published earlier this year. The storyline is based in Calcutta of 1960s-70s where Jazz clubs are still lively.

The storyline revolves around two personalities, who are different by a vast amount of surroundings between them yet, they found each other become friends. One is a son of a wealthy landowner and another is born into a fisherman’s family. One is a genius vagabond, another is an ambitious dreamer. However, both of them share a common passion. They both are aspiring writers and have their own share of struggles.

Their friendship is however not only based on the common passion they share. It is actually the different personalities, like two opposing forces attracting each other. It is their story, where one gets the chance to live and other to die.

The narrative style third person and is used very well. The charm of this book is in its characterization. Apart from the two main protagonists of our novel, the characters are lively and cope well with their own roles or the amount of time they are given to appear. The development of the two protagonists can be observed throughout the novel. The writing style is excellent and engrossing. It is because of the manner it is written that as a reader I could observe the emotions that change with time inside a human mind. Crushing memories from past, nostalgic ones from the childhood, this book is full of them.

4 out of 5!