The Impressionist

The Impressionist

Summary

A sweeping, colourful adventure from the acclaimed author of White Tears

Discover Hari Kunzru's smash-hit debut novel

This is the extraordinary story of a child conceived in a wild monsoon night, a boy destined to be an outsider, a man with many names and no name.

Born into luxury but disinherited and cast out onto the streets of Agra, Pran Nath must become a chameleon. Chasing his fortune, he will travel from the red light district of Bombay to the green lawns of England to the unmapped African wilderness. He will play many different roles -- a young prize in a brothel, the adopted son of Scottish missionaries, the impeccably educated young Englishman headed for Oxford -- in order to find the role that will finally fit.

Daring and riotously inventive, The Impressionist is an odyssey of self-discovery: a tale of the many lives one man can live and of the universal search for true identity.

Reviews

  • Publisher's description. Discover an odyssey of self-discovery, as one child born different must find his way and his place in the world. From the streets of Agra to Bombay's red light district, from the pristine, cloistered lawns of Oxford to an expedition in West Africa - Pran Nath is a boy who will have many faces, many names, many lives...
    Penguin

About the author

Hari Kunzru

Hari Kunzru is the author of the novels The Impressionist, Transmission, My Revolutions and Gods Without Men, and the story collection Noise. He lives in New York and his next novel, White Tears, will be published by Hamish Hamilton in spring 2017.
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