Shining Hero [Paperback]

Sara Banerji (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2003

In a village outside modern-day Calcutta, a young girl sends a baby floating down a sacred river towards an unknown destiny. The river will ultimately link the fate of young Karna to that of a host of other characters: his teenage mother, Koonty; his half-brother and rival, Arjuna; his destitute foster mother, Dolly; as well as ruthless street thugs, pariahs, and film stars. In this enchanting novel, which dips luxuriously into the richness of Indian myth and Hindu legend, Sara Banerji takes us on an exhilarating ride from the underworld of Calcutta, to Bollywood, up into the Himalayas, culminating—as the brothers fight for fame and fortune—in a race to the death that only one can win.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Ingenious and surprising… an Indiacentric Ulysses.” -- The Times Literary Supplement

“Sara Banerji is a very gifted storyteller…. Shining Hero must be a serious contender for the Booker Prize.” -- The Times

From the Publisher

In a village outside modern–day Calcutta, a young girl sends a baby floating down a sacred river towards an unknown destiny. The river will ultimately link the fate of young Karna to that of a host of other characters: his teenage mother, Koonty; his half–brother and rival, Arjuna; his destitute foster mother, Dolly; as well as ruthless street thugs, pariahs, and film stars. In this enchanting novel, which dips luxuriously into the richness of Indian myth and Hindu legend, Sara Banerji takes us on an exhilarating ride from the underworld of Calcutta, to Bollywood, up into the Himalayas, culminating—as the brothers fight for fame and fortune— in a race to the death that only one can win. Debut novelist Sara Banerji teaches Creative Writing at Oxford University.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007135688
• ISBN-13: 978-0007135684
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,513,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sara Banerji is the daughter of Anita Mostyn, a novelist who wrote in the 1950's under the pen name Anne Mary Feilding and of Sir Basil Mostyn, Bart. She is descended from the family of Henry Fielding, the 18th century author.

Born in England and evacuated to various large and crumbling country mansions during the war, Sara spent the later part of her childhood in a mud rondavel in what was then Southern Rhodesia, where her father grew tobacco. She later hitchhiked round Europe, worked as an au pair and went to art school in Austria.

While working in a coffee bar in Oxford, Sara met her husband-to-be, a law undergraduate from India. She lived for seventeen years with her husband and three daughters on tea plantations in the hills of South India and in Assam in the North East. She and her husband also ran a dairy and poultry farm in her husband's ancestral village in West Bengal.

During these years she held exhibitions of her oil paintings, rode as a jockey, and started writing novels.

Returning to England, broke because of Indian currency restrictions, she bought ponies and gave riding lessons, cooked Indian feasts for people's dinner parties, and set up a gardening business. During this period she learnt Transcendental Meditation and yogic flying, which she has practiced ever since.

Her first novel, 'Cobwebwalking', was published in 1986. She now lives in Oxford where she continues to write, paint and make her unique sculptures, and cultivate her prolific allotment.

Up to July 2011 Sara has published twelve novels. Her publishers have included Victor Gollancz, Transworld and Harper Collins, and her books have appeared in hardback and paperback editions. Her most recent novels are published on Kindle.

She won the Arts Council of England award, The Author's Foundation award, the Write Out Loud award, was long-listed for the Booker prize and her last book was nominated for the IMPAC award.

She teaches creative writing at Oxford University's Department of Continuing Education and has also taught at many other venues including the Cheltenham Literature Festival and on a Greek island. Several of her students have had their novels published by mainstream publishers, their plays performed on the professional stage or have won literary prizes. She and her students put on several public literary events for Oxfringe each year and together have created several collections of stories, the most recent being two books of short stories set in and around Oxford. The third, 'Oxford Story Walks,' will be published this autumn.