A number of the parents in the slum work as caretakers, maids, or cleaners at the apartment complex. While Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is a fascinating study of India in the modern age, the plot left much to be desired. Narrating in the first person, Anappara immerses us not only in Jai’s world of deep social inequities, but also in his internal world.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara – review

I appreciate these poignant social commentaries in Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line—it would be easy to gloss over these harsh realities to portray a more wholesome image of India to readers, but Anappara doesn’t shy away from these truths in her book. With over a dozen translations in the works including the already-announced German title, Die Detektive vom Bhoot-Basar [or, The Detectives of Bhoot Bazaar], I wonder how this display of languages will further play out on the page. While investigating a series of missing children taken from an unnamed Indian slum, Jai and his friends Pari and Faiz, the central protagonists in Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, come across many pictures and iconography depicting Hindu gods.Hearing him, Jai believes that Faiz would never kill him, showing the innocence and purity of a boy who hasn’t been sullied by religious divisions.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara - Waterstones

He asks Pari and Faiz to be his assistants, and together they draw up lists of people to interview and places to visit. A review in The New York Times noted that Djinn Patrol "announces the arrival of a literary supernova". It also gave me a community; I met fellow students whose critiques I trusted, and whose writing I admired.We’ve been brought up to believe that children are only focussed on their games and food, unaware of the harsh realities of life. Jai is a wonderful narrator, fully imagined … and in Anappara’s hands, his world takes shape with care yet without sentiment, from the ghost of the ragpickers’ boss to the fear that bulldozers will raze their homes. Many of them were working, or weren’t able to study, because of their difficult financial or domestic circumstances.

Djinn Patrol’ Blurring The Line Between Fiction And Reality In ‘Djinn Patrol’

This dazzling debut follows three children investigating a series of disappearances in the slums of India. This is also the case in the book, where the authorities choose to play a blame-game based on religion rather than focussing on the actual investigation into the case of the vanishing children. For readers of Jhumpa Lahiri and Rohinton Mistry, as well as Lorrie Moore and George Saunders, here are stories on the pathos and comedy of small-town migrants struggling to build a life in the big city, with the dream world of Bollywood never far away.

Discover the heart-rending, unforgettable novel longlisted for the Women’s Prize 2020 with Vintage’s Reading Group Booklet. From his doorway, he can spot the glittering lights of the city’s fancy high-rises, and though his mother works as a maid in one, to him they seem a thousand miles away. Anappara seduces us with tastes and smells, reminding us that even within this environment, where pollution weighs heavy in the air and scavenging from the local landfill is commonplace, there is still beauty and enjoyment in food: “Ma gathers ginger and garlic slivers and throws them into the pan, followed by a pinch of turmeric and coriander and cumin powder. From his upside-down perspective, he can see five holes in the tin roof of his house: “There might be more, but I can’t see them because the black smog outside has wiped the stars off the sky. Like 24% of the Indian population, the people in Djinn Patrol live in slums, and many of them work for the ‘hi-fi’ people in the nearby areas.