Animal's People - Indra Sinha

This book is incredibly under-rated. Whether due to it's very serious story line, or lack of marketing, I don't know. It was however named to the "new" 1001 books list, and more importantly, was short-listed for the 2007 booker prize.

This book is narrated by "Animal", a young man who was left physically twisted and orphaned by a chemical company disaster. Sinha injects enough humor to make this book quite readable despite it's serious and sad nature. I would however caution that there is liberal use of strong language.

This book is not a light read. Many phrases are in French or Indian, and must be gleamed from context (unless of course you know these languages).

Technically, this book would have to be considered a work of fiction. However, don't be surprised if something about this book is niggling at your memory. This book is the author's interpretation of the effects of a very real event. The city of Khaufpur does not exist (don't let the city's "official website" fool you), and the characters may not exist by the particular names used in this book, but nothing in this book could not, or has not happened.

The fictional city of Kaufpur is based on the real city of Bhopal. The fictional American "kampani" talked about in the book is the Union Carbide company (now owned by Dow Chemical). The very real disaster occured on December 3, 1984. The long term effects and responsibility is still a matter of debate.