"A heady mix of myth, modern mores, politics and lust. . . . Heartbreakingly funny, moving and as relevant as today's headlines."--
The Washington Post "Githa Hariharan's fiction is wonderful--full of subtleties and humor and tenderness." -Michael Ondaatje
"If this premise seems to be drawn from the headlines of modern, B.J.P.-dominated India, Hariharan amplifies the themes of courage, dissent, and responsibility in her protagonist's private life. . . . The result is an engaging portrait of the mild-mannered professor." -
The New Yorker "Appealing. . . . By turns bewildered, titillated, embarrassed, and frightened out of his wits, Shiv makes a sweetly sympathetic hero for a story that is part comedy of manners, part comedy of ideas."--
The Boston Globe
"A modern fable . . . beautifully told in a spare style that is as modern as its subject."--
The Baltimore Sun
"A witty, insightful novel . . . Hariharan tells the tale with a realistic grasp of how people interact and a highly evolved sense of the absurd." --
The Seattle Times "Intelligent . . . [Hariharan's] deceptively simple prose belies the artistry of her phrasings and she writes with an infectious concern for her characters." --
San Francisco Chronicle
"Admirable. [Its] themes . . . extend beyond India or its current situation. They are universal. Ms. Hariharan has written a fine novel that leaves much to ponder long after its conclusion." -
The Richmond-Times Dispatch
"[Hariharan is] an outstanding writer." -J. M. Coetzee
"Eloquently written . . . a quick read, and fascinating to any outsider. A modern book, it reads like a classic with gorgeous prose and intense conflict." -
The Oklahoma Gazette "Imaginative . . . entertaining . . . [The] strength of this highly readable tale is that it is a delicate blend of humor, tenderness and insight." --
Tucson Citizen
"Wonderful . . . Ms. Hariharan executes the vastness of India's historical terrain, and the minutiae of one sagging human being finding a flicker of inspiration, with great dignity and intimate humor." -
The Asian Reporter "Engrossing . . . re-establishes [Hariharan's] reputation as a deft storyteller." --
India-West
"Hariharan captures Shiv's besieged existence with just the right amount of angst, confusion, polemic and humour. Hariharan has written . . . [a] persuasive work that tells of the perils of sectarianism and silence in the face of oppression." -
Far Eastern Economic Review "Hariharan writes with anguish, pain and anger about what is happening to our country. I put
In Times of Siege on top of my list of books that must be read." -Khushwant Singh in
The Hindustan Times
Caring for his twenty-four-year-old ward, who has broken her leg, middle-aged history professor Shiv Murthy struggles with the feelings that the young woman stirs in him, a situation that is complicated when one of his medieval Indian lessons is challenged by a group of religious extremists. Reprint 10,000 first printing.