Baumgartner's Bombay (King Penguin) - Softcover

Desai, Anita

3.51

943 ratings by Goodreads

9780140131765: Baumgartner's Bombay (King Penguin)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140131760 ISBN 13: 9780140131765

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1990

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A "beautifully written, richly textured, and haunting story" (Chaim Potok), BAUMGARTNER'S BOMBAY is Anita Desai's classic novel of the Holocaust era, a story of profound emotional wounds of war and its exiles. The novel follows Hugo Baumgartner as he flees Nazi Germany -- and his Jewish heritage -- for India, only to be imprisoned as a hostile alien and then released to Bombay at war's end. In this tale of a man who, "like a figure in a Greek tragedy . . . seems to elude his destiny" (NEW LEADER), Desai's "capacious intelligence, her unsentimental compassion" (NEW REPUBLIC) reach their full height.

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From the Back Cover:

“Beautifully observed... Recovers a lost slice of history in its portrayal of a wounded survivor.” – Observer

“Hugo Baumgartner, the central character of Anita Desai’s dazzling novel, is a wandering Jew all his life. From the agonizing scenes of his childhood in pre-war Berlin, through his spell in business in Calcutta and then Bombay, he
simply does not belong. Too dark for Hitler’s society, he is too fair for India; he remains a firanghi, a foreigner, wherever he goes.” – Daily Telegraph

“Cleverly constructed, and full of sharp perceptions about human nature under the skin, whatever the colour.” – The Times

About the Author:

ANITA DESAI is the author of Fasting, Feasting, Baumgartner’s Bombay, Clear Light of Day, and Diamond Dust, among other works. Three of her books have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Desai was born and educated in India and now lives in the New York City area.

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