Dahanu Road (2010)

"It always started with the rubbing of knees. Then Shapur Irani would shut his eyes tight, as he was doing now, as though by sheer willpower he would be able to transport his grandson into the past. Slowly the tightness in Shapur Irani's eyelids increased, until they fluttered like the wings of an injured bird, and he took Zairos with him to an older, more promising time."

With The Cripple and His Talismans, The Song of Kahunsha and now Dahanu Road to his credit, Anosh Irani is swiftly becoming one of the most reliably excellent novelists working in Canada. His latest novel combines elements of the immigrant story, the disenfranchised minority story, the family saga, and the star-crossed love story to form a richly layered and deeply moving tale.

The story centres of Zairos, a young man with no cares save for his father's war on household mosquitoes and his grandfather's lonely life on his grand estate. His grandfather lives behind the veil of his memories, of the time before the death of his beloved wife, a time of pride and happiness after having endured being driven out of Iran. Visiting the estate one day, Zairos finds the body of one of the Warli workers hanging from a tree. The suicide brings Zairos into contact with the man's daughter, Kusum, but it also hints at events of the past, at threads which have long tied Zairos' family to Kusum's despite the seemingly insurmountable class differences between them.

Irani draws stark divisions between his characters, showing the chasm that exists between Zairos and Kusum as existing not only due to custom but also due to Zairos' own psychology. He longs for Kusum but for every step he takes towards her, he takes two steps back. He's brave enough to take Kusum out in public for the local gossip to see, but he's too cowardly to correct his mother when she mistakes Kusum for a new house servant. The relationship between the two is complex and carefully explored, though it is far from the only compelling plot in the novel. Though I don't think Dahanu Road is quite as good as The Song of Kahunsha (though, to be fair, I think Kahunsha is a masterpiece), it's a great novel nevertheless, the kind you find yourself reading slowly so that you can savour each and every development and because you don't want to be done with it.