December 2016

These days, fears of terrorism are always lurking in the shadows. THE ASSOCIATION OF SMALL BOMBS, a novel by Karan Mahajan, takes readers inside the world of terrorists and terrorism, giving a 360-degree view to the subject in a tightly woven story that unfolds brilliantly. As the book opens in 1996, two brothers, Tushar and Nakul Khurana, pick up their family’s television set at a repair shop in a Dehli marketplace. They have been accompanied by their friend, Mansoor Ahmed. Alas, a bomb has been planted in the marketplace. As it detonates, it claims the lives of the brothers, but spares Mansoor, who races from the scene leaving his friends behind.

But the incidents of that day have echoes far beyond that marketplace. Mansoor has sustained physical injuries and mental trauma, and while he tries to move ahead in life, he cannot. He is crippled in many ways by the events of that day. As his once-focused life now meanders, he meets a young man named Ayub, who becomes a fast friend. But in Ayub, we have an activist whose shadow dealings bring Mansoor once again into the grips of terrorism, in another way.

There are surprises and twists along the way with Mahajan leading readers to explore the many sides of terrorism, from both inside and outside. We always picture terrorists as arrogant and singularly driven, but here they are more dimensional. We see them in the days before and after the act. There is lots to think about here, including how the effects of many small bombs are just as powerful as those of more epic proportions.