Arzee The Dwarf

By Chandrahas Choudhury

About the book

Shortlisted for the Commonwealth First Book Prize 2010    ‘Arzee the Dwarf offers both a small, potent shot of narrative energy and a wide, vivid palette of human feeling. Choudhury shows that there is no one quite like Arzee, and yet there is an Arzee in all of us.’   Nadeem Aslam, author of Maps for Lost Lovers and The Wasted Vigil ‘A delightful debut novel that combines exceptional art with a great story’ – The Tribune ‘From the first page, this is a triumph of storytelling in what Chandrahas Choudhury chooses to reveal, and at what precise pace’ – Outlook   ‘Remarkably different from anything else that has appeared in recent years in South Asian English fiction’ – The Caravan ‘His writing is all his own, sparking with energy, and cultivated from the culture of this city’ – DNA   ‘In Arzee’s perpetual flitting between rage, despair and hope lies the story of everyone’ – Indian Express    Arzee the Dwarf brings you one of Indian literature’s most unusual characters: the small and feisty cinema projectionist Arzee. Arzee has a dream: to become ‘the king of the Noor’, and in this way to overcome his smallness from the high perch of the projectionist’s room on the top floor of one of Bombay’s most famous cinemas.   But the world that Arzee loves is falling away, and it seems that if he loses his grip on it, he will also lose his grip on himself. As we float alongside Arzee through the landscapes of city, cinema and dream, we also meet a host of memorable characters – such as the gangster Deepak, the hairdresser Monique, and Arzee’s own long-suffering mother. Shot through with both laughter and sadness, Arzee the Dwarf is an intricately plotted and evergreen book.   Arzee the Dwarf was selected in 2010 by the magazine World Literature Today as one of the ’60 Essential Works of Modern Indian Literature in English’.