The Girl from Nongrim Hills

The Girl from Nongrim Hills is a 2013 fiction novel by Indian author Ankush Saikia.[1] The book was first published on October 1, 2013 through Penguin India and is Saikia's second novel, following his 2007 book Jet City Woman and is his third published book.

The Girl from Nongrim Hills
AuthorAnkush Saikia
CountryIndia
LanguageEnglish
GenreFiction
Published2013, Penguin India
Media typePrint, e-book
Pages240 pages
ISBN0143421190
Preceded bySpotting Veron and other Stories 
Followed byDead Meat (Arjun Arora no.1) 

Synopsis

Bok, a guitar player with a Shillong band, has a lot on his mind. His elder brother Kitdor has lost 50 lakh rupees on a trip to Nagaland to purchase arms for a group of militants. Kitdor is given a week to repay the money, and the only person he can turn to is his laid-back younger brother. Bok is helpless until a chance encounter with a beautiful woman provides him with a desperate solution. But fate can’t be cheated and soon the hapless musician is tangled in her web of lies. He must outmaneuver her and the trail of politicians, militants and cops she leaves in her wake, and find the 50 lakhs in time if he is to save his brother. Dark, atmospheric and utterly gripping, The Girl from Nongrim Hills is a superb thriller and a great Shillong novel.

Development

Saikia came up with the idea for The Girl from Nongrim Hills after coming up with the idea of "money changing hands in a hotel room in Shillong" and came up with two of the book's characters shortly afterwards.[2] He chose to include elements such as extortion, arms smuggling, and kidnapping as they were "only too common in the Northeast" and believed that it would "provide the basis for a good noir story".[2] He chose to set the story in Shillong as he was familiar with the area and saw that several scenes in the book would work well with the city.[3] He based the characters of Bok and Kitdor on several Shillong boys he knew and took Bok's enjoyment of 80s music from Saikia's own enjoyment of the music from that era.[3] It took Saikia ten months to write The Girl from Nongrim Hills and he found the editing and resolution of the novel to be the most challenging aspects of its writing.[3]

Reception

Critical reception The Girl from Nongrim Hills has been mostly positive.[4][5] IBNLive noted that while the book did have one inaccuracy, they found the book hard to put down and enjoyed Saikia's writing overall.[6] The New Indian Express and Deccan Herald also gave positive reviews for The Girl from Nongrim Hills, and both papers praised the book for its characters and pacing.[7][8]

References
  1. O'Yeah, Zac. "A year of many thrills". Live Mint. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  2. "Interview: Ankush Saikia". Time Out Bengaluru. Archived from the original on 24 May 2014. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  3. Boange, Dilshan. "Exploring voices for Indian thriller fiction". Sunday Observer. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  4. Prabhakar, Anu. "Where's India's Agatha Christie?". Mid-Day. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  5. "Print Pick". The Hindu. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  6. Choudhury, Soumyadip. "'The Girl from Nongrim Hills' review: An 80 kmph ride through Shillong". IBNLive. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  7. Sandhu, Amandeep. "A slice of thrill in Shillong". NIE. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
  8. Subramanian, Lalitha. "Northeast noir". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 24 May 2014.


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