THE CLIFFHANGERS: A NOVEL

On New Year?s Eve, a tourist
is raped in Kadaloor, a tranquil fishing village on the southern coast of the
country. The chief suspects are a group of teenaged boys (called the
Cliffhangers). As they attempt to prove their innocence, the boys also have
to deal with the spectre of communal intolerance that is beginning to divide
the Hindu and Muslim fishermen and villagers. Numerous small incidents, in
which the boys are sought to be implicated, help ratchet up the stress. The
growing communal tension and the hunt for the real rapist intersect,
propelling the village to the edge of disaster. In The Cliffhangers, Sabin
Iqbal gives us a brilliant debut novel that illuminates hard truths about the
religious fault lines that are dividing the country.