Run and Hide

Mishra returns to fiction (after Bland Fanatics, a collection of criticism) with a circuitous story of an Indian man opting out of an ostensibly bright future. Arun Dwivedi, a literary translator, recounts his life to a writer named Alia, who is working on a book about India’s new global power brokers with a focus on his former classmates at the cutthroat Indian Institute of Technology in the 1990s. He describes a fractured upbringing with an abusive father and a modest young adulthood after IIT, contrasted with that of two fellow lower-caste friends who went on to great heights. There’s “financial wizard” Virendra, who makes a fortune in America, and social climber Aseem, who insinuates himself into high society as a writer. Arun, on the other hand, moves to a small Himalayan village to look after his abandoned mother. After Aseem introduces him to Alia, she invites him on a getaway to Pondicherry, where their relationship turns sexual. While away, Arun’s mother dies and he makes an impulsive decision to follow Alia to London. Arun’s reflections are nearly sunk by tedious philosophizing about India’s place in the early 21st century and the rise of nationalism, but are saved by the searing portraits of purportedly successful Desis. There are plenty of insights, but the rambling structure and navel-gazing narration will tax readers’ patience. Agent: ICM Partners. (Mar.)