Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line

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I often visited neighbourhoods like the one I have written about, and I am indebted to the people who lived there, who invited me to their homes and offered me tea and chatted with me. A review in The New York Times noted that Djinn Patrol "announces the arrival of a literary supernova". As the story progresses, we learn that Jai’s slum is a short distance away from an upmarket complex of apartments. In writing a short story, I can often see its shape in its entirety, but this is much more difficult with a novel.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara | Goodreads Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara | Goodreads

While the book revolves around the issue of kidnapped children and the indifference of the authorities, religious hate propaganda also plays a major part. Hearing him, Jai believes that Faiz would never kill him, showing the innocence and purity of a boy who hasn’t been sullied by religious divisions. transcends its burdens by being exceptionally well-written, thoughtfully structured and, above all, sensitive to the precise individuality and mental acuity of its characters.

In many ways he is an unremarkable boy: he watches reality cop shows on TV, attends the overcrowded government school, and tries to stay out of trouble. Jai, age 9, lives in a basti, a slum-like settlement, near the end of Delhi’s purple metro line, and loves reality police shows. There are also third-person sections that follow children about to be abducted, but these end with cliffhangers: we never see a child come to harm. A stunningly original tale… I stayed up late every night until I finished, reluctant to part from Deepa Anappara’s heart-stealing characters. By story’s end, Jai has grown more hesitant, humbled by tragedy and evils beyond his once-childish imaginings.

s Vanishing Children: Deepa Anappara’s ‘Djinn Patrol on India’s Vanishing Children: Deepa Anappara’s ‘Djinn Patrol on

only accentuates the seriousness of her subject: the disappearance of children from villages in India, a real-life issue give intimate treatment here. Jai’s family consider themselves fortunate to get two square meals a day—even if it is the same rice and lentils every day. So it is with Jai, a 9-year-old Indian boy who’s the narrator and main character of Deepa Anappara’s extraordinary debut novel.Instead of concentrating on finding the missing children, the local Hindu groups are happy to instigate religious violence, and the main issue gets side-tracked.

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line - Penguin Books UK

There is very little to recommend him as a protagonist, which is odd, considering he is a child and should have more personality.Djinn Patrol is shortlisted for the 2020 JCB Prize and was longlisted for the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction.