Rajat Chaudhuri’s latest SPELLCASTERS is part psychological thriller and part climate adventure.
Niyogi Books is delighted to announce the publication of Spellcasters: A Novel by Rajat Chaudhuri, novelist, short story writer, and translator.
Part psych-thriller and part climate adventure with a twist of the occult, this is the story of a journalist who gets caught up in the case of a billionaire tycoon and chocolates laced with a secret drug. The sharp writing and a dystopian setting make this novel a compelling read.
On writing this dark and gripping story, Rajat Chaudhuri, says, ‘Recently, industry captains have been talking about a “70-hour work week” and how we should work harder to beat other nations. Meanwhile, cautionary voices that flag the need to slow down because of `planetary limits’ get drowned out. Limitless growth is an addictive dream, stronger than the most potent drugs, but the addict doesn’t care about the damage it inflicts. Think of the poisoned air, the Himalayan landslides or the summer temperatures that broke all records, aren’t these clear signs of a raging illness? Spellcasters is a mirror to this diseased time, when persuasive hogwash rules over mind and matter, affecting and transforming people and the living planet in unimaginable ways. It is finally the story of a commoner lured into a vortex of greed and malignant ambition where victim and perpetrator can hardly be told apart. That way, it is also the story of each one of us living this benighted present.’
Announcing the release, Trisha De Niyogi, Director and COO, Niyogi Books says, ‘We feel a book like Spellcaster is a necessary read for all. Today, when we are making scientific advances in leaps and bounds but seem to have forgotten how we are impacting Mother Nature, books like this remind us what can happen if we don’t check ourselves in time.’
THE BOOK
Chanchal Mitra wakes up in a far-off desert town, sharing a dingy hotel room with the flamboyant Mr. Kapoor, who is planning to abduct a billionaire. Kapoor insists that the billionaire tycoon is an impostor. Chanchal is unwittingly drawn into the plot. Soon they are joined by the mystery woman Sujata, her eyes dark like murder; and then a crutch-clutching ex-sailor, who is quick with a gun.
In the smog-swathed capital city of Aukatabad, an organic chemist engaged by the tycoon to design a mind-altering drug, is found dead from an overdose. Elsewhere, the billionaire industrialist’s chocolate factory is contaminated by salmonella while Sujata fights a fiery death at the hands of hired killers. As weird weather overtakes the land and Kapoor sets out with his accomplices to kidnap the businessman, the flimsy lines between friend, foe and lover begin to quickly disappear.
THE AUTHOR
Rajat Chaudhuri’s works include novels, story collections, edited anthologies and translations. He curated The Best Asian Speculative Fiction and co-edited the Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures (Asia-Pacific) anthology.
His most recent novel, The Butterfly Effect was twice listed by Book Riot (US) as one of the ‘Fifty must read eco-disasters in fiction’ and among ‘Ten works of environmental literature from around the world’. Acclaimed for its exploration of a ‘Ballardian near-future’, this novel is now taught in Indian, American and European universities. His short fiction has also appeared in the internationally acclaimed climate fiction video game, Survive the Century. Chaudhuri has received writing fellowships from Charles Wallace (UK), Hawthornden Castle (Scotland) and Livonics (India) and residency awards from Arts Council Korea-InKo (South Korea) and Sangam House (India).
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK
‘A phantasmagoric journey through an alternative reality of collapsed time, hallucinatory visions and spectral visitations: an unexpected and unsettling rollercoaster ride.’
– AMITAV GHOSH
Price: INR 495 / Format: Paperback / Pages: 320 / Imprint: Olive Turtle
THE PUBLISHER
An internationally acclaimed publishing house, Niyogi Books, established in 2004, has more than 650 titles today. They not only specialize in textual context but also strive to give equal importance to visuals. They purvey a wide range of content on art, architecture, history, culture, spirituality, memoirs, and every aspect, which connects with our rich heritage. Under their umbrella, they have fiction and non-fiction that cover books on social science, cookery, and self-help as well as English Translations of modern classics from different Indian languages.
Niyogi Books has recently launched four new Imprints: Olive Turtle (English fiction), Thornbird (English Translation), and Paper Missile (English non-fiction) and Bahuvachan (Hindi Translation: Fiction & Non-Fiction). Also, they have co-published a number of critically acclaimed books with reputed institutions like the British Library, Rietberg Museum Zurich, IGNCA, National Gallery of Modern Art, Ministry of Culture (Govt. of India), National Manuscript Mission, Sahitya Akademi, among many others.
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