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It is astonishing how magic realism has appeared in the elegiac-natured narration style of ‘A Melancholy Ballad’ (Bishadgatha), deviating from a traditional approach. Is this multilayered, multidimensional family lore not a classic of contemporary litera-ture? It is a swift-moving, multi-faceted, bold canvas of the same type as García Márquez’s ‘A Hundred Years of Solitude’.
Chinmoy Guha
Emeritus professor of English literature, Poet and French scholar
Novels about family histories spanning several generations are not rare on this planet. Amarendra Chakravorty’s ‘A Melancholy Ballad’ can be said to fall within this tradition. It must be said without a doubt, this is no ordinary novel. A novel written in such song-like cadence and poetic prose is rare in Bengali literature.
The location in this novel is unchanging, but the time constantly shifts. Time itself becomes the central character, binding together the final phase of the last century and the early edge of the twenty-first century across the layers of the narrative.
Rahul Dasgupta
Novelist and literary critic
ISBN: 978-93-92281-49-5
Published: 20 June 2025
Pages: 341
Binding: Paperback
Published by: Virasat
It is astonishing how magic realism has appeared in the elegiac-natured narration style of ‘A Melancholy Ballad’ (Bishadgatha), deviating from a traditional approach. Is this multilayered, multidimensional family lore not a classic of contemporary litera-ture? It is a swift-moving, multi-faceted, bold canvas of the same type as García Márquez’s ‘A Hundred Years of Solitude’.
Chinmoy Guha
Emeritus professor of English literature, Poet and French scholar
Novels about family histories spanning several generations are not rare on this planet. Amarendra Chakravorty’s ‘A Melancholy Ballad’ can be said to fall within this tradition. It must be said without a doubt, this is no ordinary novel. A novel written in such song-like cadence and poetic prose is rare in Bengali literature.
The location in this novel is unchanging, but the time constantly shifts. Time itself becomes the central character, binding together the final phase of the last century and the early edge of the twenty-first century across the layers of the narrative.
Rahul Dasgupta
Novelist and literary critic
