Paradise Towers by Shweta Bachchan-Nanda
Blurb:
Welcome to Paradise Towers, an apartment building in central
Mumbai. Everyone here has a story to tell. Or maybe they have stories to hide.
Shweta Bachchan-Nanda's quirky, intimate debut explores the intertwined lives
in this building - a forbidden romance, an elopement, the undercurrents of
tension in corridor interactions and an explosive Diwali celebration.
Bachchan-Nanda's is a dazzling voice that will draw you into the intoxicating,
crazy world that is Paradise Towers.
Review:
I went into this book with zero expectations. Because well,
I’ve had let’s say less than stellar experiences with books by Indian Authors
lately, so I wanted to give the book a fair shot by not setting my expectations
up. And I must say I was pleasantly surprised by this book.
Charming is the first word that comes to mind when I think
of Paradise Towers. I really enjoyed all the little details put into the book.
Also, I need to say this, the chapter numbers looked like number plates on the
door, and I thought that was a really cute detail to include.
I adored the descriptive writing style. To me, it has this
old world charm to it that I really liked. For me it was a good balance of it
being descriptive without going too overboard. It creates a clear picture of
the building and provides a perfectly innocent backdrop for a mundane life in
Mumbai. But, everything is rarely as it seems.
Paradise Towers was a charming mesh that to me represented
Mumbai, with a mixture of all the people from all walks of life. In some places it did feel like the writer
tried to include too many topics in one book, but in the end I felt like it
kind of reflected to the chaotic nature of the book and the chaos that is
Mumbai sometimes. The book had a realistic description of the intersecting and
intertwining lives of the residents at Paradise Towers, which was fun to read
about. I think the interpersonal relations in the book is what made the book
stand out to me.
Overall, a breezy and fun book, it would make for a perfect break.
