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Loading... The Song of Kahunshaby Anosh Irani
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. The voice of the main character, a ten year old boy, almost makes up for the harsh setting and events that occur during the story. Chamdi, left by his father at an orphanage as an infant, sees the world differently than everyone else. When he decides to leave the orphanage, he encounters a world that is nothing like he expected, though he manages to find beauty and hope in the most difficult circumstances. (  )elizardkwik | Jan 12, 2009 |   A heartbreaking story of orphaned and homeless children in Bombay, told as a part of the larger struggles between Hindus and Muslims in that city in the early 1990s. Terribly sad, with moments of horrific cruelty, this is not a tale for the weak-stomached. Beautifully written, but very difficult to read. (  )kjhill45 | Jan 1, 2009 | I have mixed feelings about this one - I liked it, but not as much as I think I could have; it was good, but not nearly as good as it should have been...the book dealt with some important and interesting issues, and did a good job of portraying those issues through the experience of an individual character; but...compared to, say, everything I've read by Deborah Ellis, I just couldn't get into the character or really find them believable... (  )wendellg | Jan 24, 2008 | Oh, boy, this was rough to read. I knew things were bad for orphans in India. But this was tough. Chamdi is an orphan in Bombay. When he finds out that his orphanage is closing, he runs away. And, oh, the life on the streets is horrible. Within three days, a friend dies a brutal death, he is planning on stealing from a church, he starves, and he falls in love with another homeless girl. He sees people with no arms and no legs who are forced to serve as spies for the local thug. He almost has his tongue cut off. He gives up on ever finding his father who left him at the orphanage. Yet he doesn't stop dreaming of a better life. ( )sarahthelibrarian | Oct 9, 2007 | This is a horrifying account of the life of abandoned children in the slums of Mumbai where they are mutilated to make them into more compelling beggars or used as sex slaves. The book tries to end on a hopeful note -- the imagination and spirit of the central character is not crushed by the nightmare world around him. I found the work unrelentingly bleak. I believe the world depicted is accurate. When I was in Hyderabad, India, I read a newspaper account of a eunuch who was opening a school. Apparently, poor boys are sometimes castrated by their parents so they can support themselves as prostitutes to heterosexual men. What a world! ( )theageofsilt | Sep 27, 2007 | 0.042 seconds to build listing  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0385662289, Hardcover)From one of Canada’s brightest new literary stars – a startling and beautiful novel about abandonment, poverty, and violence, as well as loyalty, love, and hope, as seen through the eyes of a young homeless boy.It is 1993 and Bombay is on the verge of being torn apart by racial violence. Ten-year-old Chamdi has rarely ventured outside his orphanage, and entertains an idyllic fantasy of what the city is like beyond its garden walls – a paradise he calls Kahunsha, “the city of no sadness.” But when he runs away to search for his long-lost father, he finds himself thrust into the chaos of the streets, alone, possessing only the blood-stained cloth he was left in as a baby. There Chamdi meets Sumdi and Guddi, brother and sister who beg in order to provide for their sick mother, and the three become fast friends. Fueled only by a desire to find his father and the dream that Bombay will someday become Kahunsha, Chamdi struggles for survival on its brutal streets. But when he is caught up in the beginnings of the savage violence that will soon engulf the city, his dreams confront reality. Moving, poignant, and wonderfully rich in the sights and sounds of Bombay, The Song of Kahunsha is a compelling story of hopes and dreams, and of the fragility of childhood innocence. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:57 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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