Night of Happiness
Shortlisted for the Atta-Galatta Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize
Longlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature
'A riveting page-turner' Deccan Herald
'A taut navigation of faith and the shrinking space for dialogues in India today' Indian Express
'A chilling look at trauma and Muslim lives in India … Khair is deft in probing into the psychological recesses of his characters' Mint
'A novel of quiet intensity' Open
'A slender, brisk narrative' Scroll.in
'[A novel of] timely relevance' Telegraph
'A serving of distilled wisdom' Week
Pragmatic entrepreneur Anil Mehrotra has set up his thriving business empire with the help of his lieutenant, Ahmed, an older man who is different in more ways than one. Quiet and undemanding, Ahmed talks in aphorisms, bothers no one, and always gets the job done. But when one stormy night, Mehrotra discovers an aspect to Ahmed that defies all reason, he is forced to find out more about his trusted aide.
As layers and layers of Ahmed's history are peeled off, Mehrotra finds himself confronting some deeply unsettling questions. Does Ahmed really have a wife? Does he keep her imprisoned in their flat? Is Ahmed deranged, or is he just making desperate sense of the horrors that afflicted him in the past?
By turns poetic, chilling and heartbreaking, Night of Happiness is an unforgettable novel set in a world without tolerance.
