PRELUDE TO A RIOT (HB)

Winner of the Tata Literature
Live! Book of the Year Fiction Award 2020 Finalist, JCB Prize for Literature
2020? In a peaceful southern town,
amidst lush spice plantations, trouble is brewing. In the town live three generations
of two families, one Hindu and the other Muslim, whose lives will be changed
forever by the coming violence. At risk are Dada, the ageing grandfather who
lovingly tends and talks to the plants on his estate; his strong-willed
grandchildren, Abu and Fareeda; the newly married Devaki, who cannot fathom
the forces that are turning her husband and her father into fanatics; Mariam,
of the gifted hands, who kneads and pounds the fatigued muscles of tourists
into submission; and Garuda, the high-school teacher who, in his own
desperate way, is trying to impart the truth about the country?s history to a
classroom of uninterested students. Quietly but surely, the spectre of
religious intolerance is beginning to haunt the community in the guise of the
Self-Respect Forum whose mission is to divide the town and destroy the
delicate balance of respect and cooperation that has existed for hundreds of
years. Told with brilliance, restraint and extraordinary power, Annie Zaidi?s
book is destined to become a classic.