India: A Portrait (PB)

About the Book: India: A Portrait Patrick French's bestselling and critically acclaimedaccount of India-now available in paperback. India is the biggest democracy on earth a country of dynamic changehuge divisions and countless identities. Is there any way to discover the'real' India? In this intimate biography of 1.2 billion people Patrick Frenchtravels all over the country talking to everyone from political leaders to mafiadons from chained quarry workers to self-made billionaire entrepreneursto tell the story of post-independence India as never before. About the Author: Patrick French Patrick French is a writer and historian born in England in 1966. Heis the author of Young husband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurerwhich won the Somerset Maugham Award and the Royal Society ofLiterature W.H. Heinemann Prize Liberty or Death: India's Journey toIndependence and Division which won the Sunday Times Young Writerof the Year Award Tibet Tibet: A Personal History of a Lost Land andmost recently The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and theHawthornden Prize Reviews 'Much like [Leela's] life-elegant spare kind to enemies and warmlyreminiscent about friends' ? India Today 'It's gripping ? If you're Indian reading the book is like learning thehistory of your country in four days'- New Indian Express 'Fizzing with wit insight and infectious curiosity ? a thoroughly enjoyableromp through six momentous decades'- Wall Street Journal Asia 'Wide-ranging clear-sighted warm-hearted and immensely readable ?The human tales that French finds are engrossing'- Evening Standard 'A rich colouring of contemporary characters and events many ofthem sharply observed at first hand. Crammed with elegant portraits' ? Economist Patrick French brings one of the globe's most dynamic nations springingto life ? he has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the country sensitivityto its subtler nuances and