In Amit Chaudhuri’s new novel, an Indian writer visits Berlin
The narrator of “Sojourn” takes in the city as his inner self crumbles
“It was evening, and I didn’t know the name of the road I was taken to.” Disorientation arrives in the very first line of “Sojourn” and percolates through this short, memorable book. Its narrative follows a winding path that will be familiar to readers of Amit Chaudhuri’s previous seven novels. It is 2005, and the unnamed narrator, an Indian writer like the author, is a visiting professor at a university in Berlin, where a revolving cast of ordinary, mostly friendly people wander in and out of his life.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Alone in Berlin”
Culture August 27th 2022
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- In Amit Chaudhuri’s new novel, an Indian writer visits Berlin
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- When Klansmen in Texas targeted Vietnamese fishermen
- The struggle to preserve regional languages
From the August 27th 2022 edition
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