“Vivek Shanbhag is an Indian Chekhov.” -- Suketu Mehta, author of MAXIMUM CITY

“One of the best novels to have come out of India in recent decades.” -- Pankaj Mishra

For readers of Akhil Sharma, Mohsin Hamid and Teju Cole, a haunting, masterly novel about a family splintered by success in rapidly changing India.

A young man’s close-knit family is nearly destitute when his uncle founds a successful spice company, changing their fortunes overnight. As they move from a cramped, ant-infested shack to a larger house on the other side of Bangalore, and try to adjust to a new way of life, allegiances realign; marriages are arranged and begin to falter; and conflict brews ominously in the background. Things become “ghachar ghochar” --- a nonsense phrase uttered by one of the characters that comes to mean something tangled beyond repair, a knot that can’t be untied.

Elegantly written and punctuated by moments of unexpected warmth and humor, GHACHAR GHOCHAR is a quietly enthralling, deeply unsettling novel about the shifting meanings --- and consequences --- of financial gain in contemporary India.