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A Novel
by Vikram Paralkar
A surgeon must bring a dead family back to life in this fabulist debut novel set in rural India, called "otherworldly" and "a haunting contemplation of life, death, the liminal space in between, and the dogged search for resurrection" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
Fleeing scandal in the city, a surgeon accepts a job at a village clinic. He buys antibiotics out of pocket, squashes roaches, and chafes at the interventions of the corrupt officer who oversees his work.
But his outlook on life changes one night when a teacher, his pregnant wife, and their young son appear. Killed in a violent robbery, they tell the surgeon that they have been offered a second chance at living if the surgeon can mend their wounds before sunrise.
So begins a night of quiet work, "as if the crickets had been bribed," during which the surgeon realizes his future is tied more closely to that of the dead family than he could have imagined. By dawn, he and his assistant have gained knowledge no mortal should have.
In this inventive novel charged with philosophical gravity and sly humor, Vikram Paralkar takes on the practice of medicine in a time when the right to health care is frequently challenged. Engaging earthly injustice and imaginaries of the afterlife, he asks how we might navigate corrupt institutions to find a moral center. Encompassing social criticism and magically unreal drama, Night Theater is a first novel as satisfying for its existential inquiry as for its enthralling story of a skeptical physician who arrives at a greater understanding of life's miracles.
"Otherworldly ... [Paralkar's] prose is sharp and melodious, and within these enchanting passages is a haunting contemplation of life, death, the liminal space in between, and the dogged search for resurrection ... A beguiling and unforgettable fable." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Fablelike tale that melds the philosophical with the corporeal ... Paralkar's novel underscores the arbitrary nature of death, the fact that one can neither prepare for it nor, perhaps, cheat one's way out of it ... Grotesque, strange, and hopeful in turns, the novel will leave readers marveling at the mysteries of death—and the wonders of life." —Publishers Weekly
"Paralkar merges folklore and fable, meditative commentary and meticulous detail ... Paralkar, a physician–scientist, melds medical realism and metaphysical debate, wry humor and somber observations to create a riveting and intriguing tale." —Booklist
"Yes, Night Theater is an exquisite fable about what we need and what we want, and a beautiful meditation on what it means to be alive. But it reads like an urgent thriller, full of characters pumping with blood and guts, twisting and turning and twisting again. This novel actually kept me up all night and then some." —Aja Gabel, author of The Ensemble
This information about Night Theater was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Vikram Paralkar was born and raised in Mumbai. Author of a previous book, The Afflictions, he is a physician–scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, where he treats patients with leukemia and researches the disease. He lives in Philadelphia.
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