Baumgartner's Bombay

One of the best English novelists writing in English

Independent

Hugo Baumgartner, the central character of Anita Desai's dazzling novel, is a wandering Jew all his life. From the agonising scenes of his childhood in pre-war Berlin, through his spell in business in Calcutta and then Bombay, he simply does not belong. Too dark for Hitler's society, he is too fair for India; he remains a firanghi, a foreigner, whatever he goes

Daily Telegraph

Beautifully observed... Recovers a lost slice of history in its portrayal of a wounded survivor

Observer

Cleverly constructed, and full of sharp perceptions about human nature under the skin, whatever the colour

The Times

Anita Desai writes beautifully, employing an opulent vocabulary to great effect in her physical descriptions... The achievement of a superior writer

Literary Review

A book that puts to shame all the little epithets and pert cliches that praise may offer

London Review of Books