A review by probablyjenna
Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag

mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

5.0

So I am the first to admit that I am an absolute sucker for a short book that packs a punch. When an author can be meticulously purposeful about each sentence, each word, each piece of punctuation…y’all, I’m an English teacher!! I eat that shit up.

Ghachar Ghochar (which I finished maybe 15 minutes ago) is a novella that explore deep themes in under 120 pages. The writing is precise, intentional, and sharp; although we never even learn the main character’s name, you become so entwined with his thoughts that you’re certain you know him well. Vivek Shanbhag’s storytelling is subtle and nuanced - when I reached the end, I found myself turning back to previous sections to see what hints I’d missed. It’s a quiet book that will sneak up on you, and those tend to be my favorite kind. 

I went into this book knowing nothing except that it came highly recommended by @claudia , so I’m not going to get into the plot. I’ll leave it at this: if I taught older students, this would be going into my curriculum immediately.