A HINDU, MINT, DECCAN HERALD, FRONTLINE BEST BOOK OF 2025
“Gorgeously crafted, compulsively readable, attention-demanding … The reader immediately knows they’ll never forget Charu … Bhattacharya is at his composed, elegant best as he belts out his gentle ode to the India that was and the India that can be – a nation that despite so many failures and tragedies, electrifies a billion and more dreams with kindness and unexpected sources of kinship.”
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“In revisiting the political and social history of modern India through the shifting fates of the Chitol family, Bhattacharya sets a benchmark for storytelling … A fictional saga like Railsong demands not only imaginative daring but also dogged discipline. Bhattacharya delivers on both counts abundantly. It has been well worth the wait for him to arrive at this sublime, clear-eyed vision of India—a nation that continues to be held together, as well as torn apart, by acts of unexpected kindness and cruelty.”
Mint