Calcutta: Vintage Departures

In this vividly drawn and deeply personal portrait, acclaimed novelist Amit Chaudhuri chronicles the two years he spent revisiting Calcutta, the city of his birth. A mesmerizing narrative, the book takes readers into the heart of a metropolis relatively resistant to the currents of globalization. Moving through the city's vibrant avenues and derelict alleyways, Chaudhuri introduces us to the homeless and the high society, describes its architecture and food, its sounds and smells, and its past and present politics. With rare candor and clarity, he combines memoir, reportage, and history to evoke all that is most particular and extraordinary about the city--and to explain his own passionate attachment to the place and its people.