Manoranjan Byapari’s novel, The Nemesis, translated from the Bengali by V Ramaswamy has been longlisted for the 2023 JCB Prize for Literature. Scroll spoke to Byapari and Ramaswamy about the origins, themes, and writing and translating of this novel.
The Nemesis takes us into the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the rumblings of liberation grew louder in East Pakistan and refugees came pouring into India, seeking asylum in the camps of West Bengal. The Naxalite movement too was gathering momentum; the Communist Party had split into CPI(M) and CPI(ML), and a bitter power tussle ensued between them and the ruling Congress Party led by Indira Gandhi. Amidst this bloody battle, we find a twenty-something Jibon in Calcutta, driven to rage by hunger, inequity and a naïve, contagious nationalistic fervour. This burning torch of a novel is a compelling portrait of a youth negotiating the streets of Calcutta, looking to seize a life that is constantly denied him.
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