Harbart

Harbart

<p><strong>This beloved cult novel―about a young man who makes a business of relaying messages from the dead―is now in a sparkling English translation</strong></p> Poor, poor, hard-luck Herbert Sarkar: born into a fancy Calcutta family but cursed from birth (his philandering movie director father is killed in a car crash and his mother dies soon after, when he’s still just a baby), he is taken as an orphan into his uncle’s house, only to fall further and further down the family totem pole. Despite good looks (“Hollywood-ish, Leslie Howard-ish)” and native talents, he is scorned by all but his kind aunt. Poor Herbert: so lovable but so little loved. Cheated of his inheritance, living on the roof in cast-off clothing, he pines for love, but all is woe: his own nephews beat him up.<br />         At twenty, however, he suddenly seems to possess the gift of speaking with the dead. <em>Herbert</em> is bathed in glory. From less than zero to starry heights―what an apotheosis. The wheel of fortune turns again, all too soon...<br />         Legendary, scathingly satiric, wildly energetic, deeply tender, <em>Herbert</em> is an Indian masterwork.