Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line (Winner for 2021 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel)

Product Description

Shortlisted for the 2020 JCB Prize

Longlisted for the Women's Prize 2020 

 Winner for Bridport Peggy Chapman Andrews First Novel Award 2017

Winner for Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize 2018 

Winner for Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award 2018

A must-read for fans of Slumdog Millionaire and Behind the Beautiful Forevers.

We children are not just stories. We live. Come and see.

Nine-year-old Jai watches too many reality cop shows, thinks he's smarter than his friend Pari (even though she always gets top marks) and considers himself to be a better boss than Faiz (even though Faiz is the one with a job).

When a boy at school goes missing, Jai decides to use the crime-solving skills he has picked up from episodes of Police Patrol to find him. With Pari and Faiz by his side, Jai ventures into some of the most dangerous parts of the sprawling Indian city; the bazaar at night, and even the railway station at the end of the Purple Line. But kids continue to vanish, and the trio must confront terrified parents, an indifferent police force and soul-snatching djinns in order to uncover the truth. 

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; 1st edition (3 Jun. 2021)

Language ‏ : ‎ English

Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1529111536

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1529111538

Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 2.1 x 19.8 cm

Customer reviews: 

Review

It’s not hard to see why Djinn Patrol is one of the most eagerly awaited debut novels this spring. It feels like a reckoning with modern India and its many complex problems… Anappara cleverly filters a uniquely Indian horror story through a chirpy, Famous Five-esque narrative and the voice of a witty, young, have-a-go hero -- Johanna Thomas-Corr ― The Times

Djinn Patrol is storytelling at its best. The prose is not just sympathetic, vivid, and beautifully detailed, but also completely assured and deft. We care about these characters from the first page and our concern for them is richly repaid -- Anne Enright, Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Gathering

In Jai, Anappara has created a boy vivid in his humanity, one whose voice somersaults on the page. Rich with easy joy, Anappara’s writing announces the arrival of a literary supernova... (Warning: If you begin reading the book in the morning, don’t expect to get anything done for the rest of the day.) -- Lorraine Adams ― New York Times Book Review

Anappara's characters brim with swagger and spirit and she creates a world of wit, warmth and heart -- Nina Stibbe ― i

A captivating literary style... A dazzling, wonderful book -- Elif Shafak ― Daily Mail

Extraordinary... moving and unpredictable... remarkable -- Maureen Corrigan ― Washington Post

A vivid, immersive debut laced with wonder ― Financial Times

A brilliant debut -- Ian McEwan, Sunday Times bestselling author of Atonement

Deepa Anappara’s richly textured and delightfully observed debut evokes the sights and sounds of a sprawling Indian city. Every detail rings true... Day-to-day life in the slums has such vitality that you immediately warm to the residents, with their resilience and dry humour -- Max Davidson ― Mail on Sunday

A moving and confident novel about the preciousness of life. The storytelling is distinctive and immersive -- Nikesh Shukla, author and editor of The Good Immigrant

It’s difficult to convey what’s so special about Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line without spoilers, but suffice to say it’s transformed utterly by its concluding chapters... [Anappara] delivers something more powerful and complex than the vast majority of more highly crafted novels. The narrative goes beyond portraying how the poor of India have been betrayed by their government, and suggests they might also be betrayed by the stories we like to tell about them. Jai has to grow up overnight: this book asks that the reader does, too. -- Sandra Newman ― *A dazzling debut* Guardian

In this thrilling reading experience, Deepa Anappara creates a drama of childhood that is as wild as it is intimate. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is an entertaining, wonderful debut -- Chigozie Obioma, Booker-prize shortlisted author of An Orchestra of Minorities

Anappara brings [the bazaar] brilliantly to vibrant, chaotic life... The amateur detectives and their schemes are utterly winning, effervescing off the page, but the tone gradually darkens as more children disappear, reflecting terrible actual statistics... [A] stand-out debut ― Daily Mail

Deepa Anappara is a writer of considerable talent. This is a wonderful, energetic book filled with humour and pathos. Charming, sensitive and deeply moving -- Nathan Filer, Costa Prize-winning author of The Shock of the Fall

A vivid, compelling debut that mixes Jai’s joie de vivrewith a menacing truth about the shockingly precarious lives of poor children who go missing every day in India -- Charlotte Heathcote ― Sunday Express

Irresistibly brimming with character and personality, I couldn’t stop picking it up for the bright lights of the writing. I also love the fact that it addresses an important issue while opening a window on everyday life in India. Wonderful. -- Diana Evans

A charming yet heartbreaking novel

The children at the heart of this story will stay with you long after you turn the last page… a wonderful debut -- Christie Watson, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Language of Kindness

Jai is a wonderful narrator, fully imagined and in Anappara's hands, his world takes shape with care yet without sentiment... Anappara took me effortlessly into the alien world of a slum in an Indian metropolis, and helped me to see it through a child's eyes -- Nilanjana Roy ― Financial Times

[Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line] makes an urgent case for the protection of the country’s youngest and most vulnerable -- Timothy Harrison ― Vogue, *Books to Look Our For in 2020*

About the Author

Deepa Anappara grew up in Kerala, southern India, and worked as a journalist in cities including Mumbai and Delhi. Her reports on the impact of poverty and religious violence on the education of children won the Developing Asia Journalism Awards, the Every Human has Rights Media Awards, and the Sanskriti-Prabha Dutt Fellowship in Journalism. A partial of her debut novel, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, won the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize, the Bridport/Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award and the Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, and is currently studying for a PhD on a CHASE doctoral fellowship.

www.deepa-anappara.com