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The Homing Pigeons

Title: The Homing Pigeons
Author: Sid Bahri
Publisher: Srishti Publishers & Distributors
ISBN: 978-93-80349-91-6
Number of Pages: 318
Price [INR] : 150
Genre: FictionThe Homing Pigeons

The blurb of the book reads like this… Not all love stories are perfect, but then, neither are people.

In the middle of the catastrophic 2008 recession, Aditya, a jobless, penniless man meets an attractive stranger in a bar. Little does he know that his life will change forever.

When Radhika, a young, rich widow, marries off her stepdaughter, little does she know that the freedom she has yearned for is not exactly how she had envisioned it.

They say homing pigeons always come back to their mate, no matter where you leave them on the face of this earth. The Homing Pigeons is the story of love between these two unsuspecting characters as it is of lust, greed, separations, prejudices and crumbling spines.

When you read the debut novels of first-time authors, you are filled with anticipation and curiosity. The story in the novel is the labour of love of the author and must have stayed in his thoughts and mind for long enough to push him to convert it into words. Though, that is not true always as I have come across many debut novels which made the grey cells grimace with pain for they had to suffer incorrect English or poor/average story line. Of course, you never know about the pain or the gain until you read it.

I am glad that I picked up Sid Bahri’s The Homing Pigeons which made for an interesting and a riveting read.
The author uses the voice of Aditya and Radhika, the two protagonists, to share the story. Through them the story keeps flitting between the present and the past, traversing years and places. And despite this, the author has a grip on the narrative. The 2 lead characters have their flaws and fail and rise like any one of us. And that makes them very easy to relate to and empathize with.

In The Homing Pigeons, the characterization is good, the story line is refreshingly new, the narrative is  crisp and compelling and the pace is smooth. All this is a treat for the reader as you keep turning one page after the other, to know more.

The building up of the predicament, anger, resentment, confusion, longing, desire, love in the two characters’ lives is very promising.

But when it finally reaches the climax, I am reminded of a dialogue from the movie Apocalypse Now where the photojournalist says, ‘this is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper!’ I wish the story didn’t end so abruptly though.

Overall, The Homing Pigeons is a delightful read. Pick it up and go for it, and you’ll certainly enjoy it.

Rating : 3.75/5

“This review is a part of the Readers Cosmos Book Review Program. To get free books visit thereaderscosmos.blogspot.com

10 Responses

  1. This is one book which I finished reading in 2 days. Enjoyed the story line… it was different from the regular stories. I did not like the end… wish the writer had elaborated more on it.

    1. So good to see you here, Kshitij. In fact, it was a big surprise to see you reading this book with such rapt attention.
      Yes, agree the ending was a bit abrupt.

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