Tokyo Cancelled [Import] [Paperback]

Rana Dasgupta (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: 4th Estate; First American Edition edition (2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007193890
• ISBN-13: 978-0007193899
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Rana Dasgupta was born in the UK in 1971 and grew up in Cambridge. As an adult he lived in France, Malaysia and the US before moving to Delhi in 2000.

His first book, "Tokyo Cancelled", was published in 2005. Narrated by travelers stuck for a night in an airport, "Tokyo Cancelled" is a cycle of folktales about our contemporary world of globalization, corporations, film stars and illegal immigrants. It was short-listed for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and the Vodafone Crossword Award.

"Solo" came out in the UK in 2009 and was awarded the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Set in Bulgaria, "Solo" follows the life and daydreams of a melancholy centenarian, so embarking on an epic exploration of science, memory, music and failure. "Solo" has been translated into twelve languages and will be available in the US in February 2011.

Rana Dasgupta now lives permanently in Delhi, and is at present working on a book-length portrait of his adopted city.

REVIEWS OF "TOKYO CANCELLED"

"Only the most gifted writers can hold the surreal and the real in satisfying equilibrium. This elite now welcomes Rana Dasgupta to its ranks" - Time Out

"Brilliantly conceived and jauntily delivered" - San Francisco Chronicle

"These stories ... ah, they outdo the Arabian Nights for inventiveness. One closes the book with head spinning" - The Guardian

REVIEWS OF "SOLO"

"Solo is ... utterly unforgettable in its humanity" - The Guardian

"A necessary as well as a timely novel" - Sunday Business Post

"Weird, wonderful and warmly wise" - Daily Mail

"This is an important work" - The Australian

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely captivating and creative, January 2, 2006

By 

Elisabeth Patterson (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tokyo Cancelled (Paperback)

This is one of the most well written, captivating and creative collection of short stories that I have read in a long time. There are so many different plots and twists and turns to each story that one wonders how Dasgupta was able to imagine it all. I very much enjoyed the fact that each story is set in a different city across five continents. For the places that I knew, I really got the feeling that Dasgupta had a good grasp of the cultures he was writing about.

I would definitely recommend reading this book, especially if one enjoys foreign settings and a certain magical atmosphere.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars interesting, October 4, 2006

By 

Vahnee (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tokyo Cancelled (Paperback)

A modern-day "Arabian Nights" for the next generation. Some of the stories in here are downright odd, but they're all enjoyable and perfect for late-night reading.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Odd, but interesting, May 18, 2005

By 

Jerry Sanchez (New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tokyo Cancelled (Paperback)

This book was not what I expected, and after finishing it, I still do not know what to think. The premise is what made me initially interested: a group of 13 strangers are stranded in the airport in Tokyo for the night and decide to pass the time by telling stories. Sounds interesting, right? I thought that the stories would be global and realistic stories about people and life. I was wrong. The stories are certainly global, and the author describes beautifully each city in the book with intimate knowledge, but the collection of stories are more like fairy tales and fantasies. I did not fully understand many of the stories, but the book kept me reading nonetheless. Overall, it was not a bad book, just different. The author writes well, and for the imaginative, this may be a great book. I just think that I would have liked similar stories about life told without the fantasy better.