The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Book Cover for: The Blue Bedspread, Raj Kamal Jha

The Blue Bedspread

Raj Kamal Jha

In the middle of a steamy Calcutta night the phone rings. An unnamed man in a city of millions answers to a voice telling him that his long-lost sister is dead. He must go to the hospital to identify the body and claim his sister's orphaned newborn daughter until she can be adopted the next day.

During the long hot night, the baby sleeps on a bedspread that used to be indigo blue, but has faded to almost white. As the child lies where the man and his sister used to sleep as children, he quietly writes stories for her, telling of his own childhood full of intensity, anguish, and poetry. He doesn't know his place in the world, but with the help of these stories, the baby someday might.

Raj Kamal Jha's ethereal, poetic prose echoes the loneliness of the human condition.


Book Details

  • Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
  • Publish Date: Apr 6th, 2001
  • Pages: 240
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.50in - 5.50in - 0.59in - 0.55lb
  • EAN: 9780156010887
  • Categories: LiteraryWorld Literature - India - 21st CenturyWomen

About the Author

Jha, Raj Kamal: - RAJ KAMAL JHA's novel The Blue Bedspread was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Jha is Chief Editor of The Indian Express.

Praise for this book

PRAISE FOR "THE BLUE BEDSPREAD"
"Jha is a remarkable writer, both in excess and restraint."-The Sunday Times (London)
"The quiet tone of this debut novel . . . packs a deceptive punch, unflinchingly delineating the familial turbulence raging just below the veneer of daily life."-Entertainment Weekly
""The Blue Bedspread "can be read easily in one sitting. But its images and emotions will linger long after the surprise ending."-USA Today
"A brilliant beginning for a writer whose voice already shows a maturity well beyond his years."-The New York Times
""The Blue Bedspread can be read easily in one sitting. But its images and emotions will linger long after the surprise ending."-USA Today
"A brilliant beginning for a writer whose voice already shows a maturity well beyond his years."-The New York Times