The Cripple and His Talismans

I love this book. Anosh Irani has a wonderful wit. I've never laughed so much from a book.

Many books are referred to as "darkly comic." In this case, it's true. It's a dark tale but one that is genuinely funny. An unnamed narrator goes on a quest for his missing arm through the dark, impoverished, violent and funny side of Bombay. The journey is episodic as the wealthy narrator encounters odd characters, wakes in new situations and generally moves through an absurdist world that reveals a Bombay he didn't know, as it also reveals a self he didn't know - or at least, he had been avoiding. In the end, it is a quest for himself. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say a harmonization of himself through the discovery of a strangely and wonderfully contradictory Bombay.