“The blame game is just that—a game. So we’ll play it.”
Fingerprint! is thrilled to announce the release of its latest fiction title, The Antagonists by Tina Biswas. A bold work of fiction, especially prescient with the national elections looming, this is a novel which swims against the rising tide of self-censorship and trepidation—and demands to be read.
Seamlessly melding the political with the personal, and fusing imagination with reality, The Antagonists reveals the dark, absurd heart of modern politics.
Devi, the bullish, mulish chief minister of West Bengal is on a mission to restore Kolkata to its former glory.
Convinced that she, and only she, is up to the job, Devi sets about ridding herself of the competition: billionaire businessman, philanthropist, and jailbird Sachin Lohia.
However, when Devi—aided and abetted by her Gelusil-glugging lackey Nigel Gidney and an assortment of toady ministers—interferes in Sachin’s plan to open a coal mine in Balachuria, a forgotten about, nothing-ever happens town, Sachin’s most trusted adviser Anil Thakur decides that she needs to be taught a lesson. Once and for all.
Anima Acharya’s life in Kolkata has started to fall apart. So she heads to her childhood summer house in Balachuria, hoping to start afresh. There she meets Tipu Nath, a go-getting teenager who presses her to gather support for the coal mine. But neither of them realise what havoc this will unleash . . .
Meet the antagonists: a bunch of characters with bags of character—who all have their side of the story to tell . . .
“An intriguing and inventive political tale . . . vivid, accessible, brisk . . . a highly original novel.”
Shashi Tharoor
“A sparkling social satire—its sheer pace, rapid-fire dialogue and brilliant observation evoking the magic of early Evelyn Waugh. Tina Biswas is a novelist of exceptional talents.”
Matthew d’Ancona, columnist, The Guardian and The London Evening Standard
About the author: Tina Biswas read Politics, Philosophy, and Economics at New College, Oxford, and writes whatever she can, whenever she can.
After her highly praised debut, Dancing With The Two-Headed Tigress, Tina followed up with The Red Road. Her novels have been critically acclaimed in newspapers such as The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Statesman, and The Globe and Mail.
The Antagonists is her third novel.
She lives in London with her husband and young daughter, and is currently working on her fourth novel.