Neel Mukherjee’s bleak and beautifully written third novel offers five loosely connected scenes from modern India. The extraordinary middle segment somehow gets us rooting for an abusive father who leaves his impoverished village to chance it as a beggar in the company of a bear cub that he reckons he can make dance. Less well developed are episodes involving an exploited construction worker and the homecoming of a Kolkata-born lecturer from the US. Mukherjee sometimes uses death as a short cut to emotional impact but he also knows how to let a storyline simmer, as when a London publisher, visiting his parents in Bombay, defies etiquette to pry into the lives of their cooks. Evoking VS Naipaul’s Booker-winning In a Free State (a probable structural model), Mukherjee’s title hints at the company he’s aiming for; I wouldn’t bet against him being in the running for this year’s prize.
• A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee is published by Chatto & Windus (£16.99). To order a copy for £12.74 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
