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Description

Vishnu, the odd-job man in a Bombay apartment block, lies dying on the staircase landing. Around him the lives of the apartment dwellers unfold: the warring housewives on the first floor, lovesick teenagers on the second, and the quietly grieving widower on the top floor of the building. In a fevered state Vishnu looks back on his love affair with the seductive Padmini and wonders if he might actually be the god Vishnu, guardian of the entire universe.

Blending incisive comedy with Hindu mythology and a dash of Bollywood sparkle, The Death of Vishnu is an intimate and compelling view of an unforgettable world.

About the Author

Manil Suri, a native of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), has lived in the United States since 1979. He is a professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker. The Death of Vishnu, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, is the first novel in a trilogy.

Praise for The Death of Vishnu…

"Marvelously life-embracing … THE DEATH OF VISHNU is a seamlessly constructed, quietly eloquent work of art."
-Newsday

“A delightful and rich first novel…lyrical.”
-Wall Street Journal

“Enchanting…Masterfully created…No telling detail or private vanity escapes the author’s comic yet infinitely compassionate scrutiny.”
-Boston Globe

"Deft and confident ."
-New York Times Book Review

"The reader is swept away by Suri's fresh, witty observations and tender comic moments."
-Seattle Times

"[A] literary accomplishment… eloquent, refined and tasteful.
-Washington Post Book World

"[THE DEATH OF VISHNU] reads like the work of a highly skilled and experienced practitioner of the writer's craft."
-The Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Suri, at his best, reveals not only a collision of modern and mythic India but a commingling of them."
-San Fransisco Chronicle