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Warning: If you begin reading the book in the morning, don’t expect to get anything done the rest of the day. . . . In Jai, Anappara has created a boy vivid in his humanity, one whose voice somersaults on the page. . . . Her storytelling genius, it might be assumed, must be rooted in her reporter’s eye for detail. But that handy formula misses the heat and mystery of what Anappara creates.
- The New York Times Book Review
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A brilliant debut.
- Ian McEwan
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Storytelling at its best—not just sympathetic, vivid, and beautifully detailed, but completely assured and deft . . . We care about these characters from the first page and our concern for them is richly repaid.
- Anne Enright, Man Booker Prize–winning author of The Gathering
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A stunningly original tale . . . I stayed up late every night until I finished, reluctant to part from Deepa Anappara’s heart-stealing characters.
- Etaf Rum, New York Times bestselling author of A Woman Is No Man
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[An] entrancing novel . . . full of humor, warmth, and heartbreak . . . Anappara paints all of her characters, even the lost ones, with deep empathy, and her prose is winningly exuberant. . . . Engaging characters, bright wit, and compelling storytelling make a tale that’s bleak at its core profoundly moving.
- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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A model of verisimilitude . . . [Jai] comes to life on the page to live on in readers’ memories.
- Booklist
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[Anappara’s] bright, propulsive prose . . . only accentuates the seriousness of her subject: the disappearance of children from villages in India, a real-life issue give intimate treatment here.
- Library Journal
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Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is a moving and confident novel about the preciousness of life. The storytelling is distinctive and immersive.
- Nikesh Shukla, editor of The Good Immigrant
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Deepa Anappara is a writer of considerable talent. This is a wonderful, energetic book filled with humour and pathos. Charming, sensitive and deeply moving.
- Nathan Filer, Costa Book Award–winning author of The Shock of the Fall
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The children at the heart of this story will stay with you long after you turn the last page . . . A wonderful debut.
- Christie Watson, bestselling author of The Language of Kindness
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A magnificent achievement: the endeavours of the Djinn Patrol offer us a captivating world of wit, warmth and heartbreak, beautifully crafted through a child’s unique perspective.
- Mahesh Rao, author of Polite Society
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Extraordinarily good, deeply moving and thought provoking with brilliant characterization . . . A very important book.
- Harriet Tyce, author of Blood Orange
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A profoundly emphatic work of creative genius that will stay with you forever.
- Sonia Faleiro, author of Beautiful Thing
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A richly textured rendition of a world little seen in Indian literature . . . There is no desire to smooth and tidy in fiction what is untidy in life, but instead there is a payoff for the reader in a story that is as quietly troubling as it is convincing.
- Mridula Koshy, author of If It Is Sweet