b. book reviews of the selected novel

The novel shocks and educates us about the degraded life of children on the streets of Bombay, and the fantasy of Kahunsha demonstrates the power of imagination in the face of adversity. [A] compelling work recalling Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner…"
— LIBRARY JOURNAL

"Anosh Irani… reveal[s] the tender heart of human need in his devastating yet surprisingly gentle novel…"
— MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE

"Irani is a gifted storyteller, and [The Song of Kahunsha], Dickensian in its plot and its vivid prose, is as beautiful as it is heartbreaking."
— BOOKLIST

"[Irani's] melodies in The Song of Kahunsha are at once bright and melancholic, his characters and senses as sharp as tusks and his plot as lithe as children running."
— THE NATIONAL POST

"[Irani] rewrites Dickens’ Oliver Twist with his native Bombay replacing nineteenth-century London…. Pure storytelling."
— TORONTO STAR

“Evocative and colourful."
— THE LONDON FREE PRESS

"A gripping and compassionate novel that will resonate long after readers have completed it...calls to mind Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance."
— WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

“Beautiful.... [It] vindicates the fragile but triumphant scope of childhood imagination with touching grace."
— THE GLOBE AND MAIL

"[Chamdi’s] relentless struggle to survive makes him one of this year’s most unforgettable heroes."
— EDMONTON JOURNAL

"With understated skill, Anosh Irani tells such a darkly enchanting story of the abandoned children of Bombay that I felt swept away by their fate and entangled in the world's too believable cruelty towards the innocent. Irani's shocking tale unfolds with a macabre and terrifying beauty that is both heartbreaking and compelling."
— WAYSON CHOY, author of All That Matters and The Jade Peony

http://www.anoshirani.com/reviews_kahunsha.html