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"The two protagonists — best of friends in spite of their different faiths — present an impressive double act, quite in the tradition of great literary duos such as Rosencrantz-Guildenstern and Vladimir-Estragon." - THE TELEGRAPH
"A witty novel that inspires us to soar over earthbound strife.... Reading Indian-American author Amit Majmudar’s novel Soar during the lockdown, with the pandemic being given nationalist and communal turns in the U.S. and India, was strangely cathartic. It served as a buoyant reminder of the pettiness of every kind of division." - THE HINDU
"Soar is an interesting insight into a war, seen through the eyes of about 1.5 million Indian colonial soldiers who served as part of the British army, and had little direct connection with its greater cause." - THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS
"These [Indian] soldiers shared folk songs and herbal remedies with their comrades across lines of race, nationality, language and faith. Bholanath and Khudabaksh are a light-hearted manifestation of a reality that is underreported. The religions of the men in the trenches were strengthening and galvanising forces, as are for the two heroes who use these to process inexplicable events—in some ways, the absurdness of a hot-air balloon mission draws attention to the senselessness of the carnage." - OPEN MAGAZINE
[Soar[ is an unusually crafted novel with a tinge of magic realism, philosophy and a fair bit of banter.... The battlefront is described well in the book as is the strange European landscape of World War I.... There is humour, tragedy and reflections on the brutality of war." - THE DECCAN HERALD
FIRST POST Book of the Week
"The two protagonists — best of friends in spite of their different faiths — present an impressive double act, quite in the tradition of great literary duos such as Rosencrantz-Guildenstern and Vladimir-Estragon." - THE TELEGRAPH
"A witty novel that inspires us to soar over earthbound strife.... Reading Indian-American author Amit Majmudar’s novel Soar during the lockdown, with the pandemic being given nationalist and communal turns in the U.S. and India, was strangely cathartic. It served as a buoyant reminder of the pettiness of every kind of division." - THE HINDU
"Soar is an interesting insight into a war, seen through the eyes of about 1.5 million Indian colonial soldiers who served as part of the British army, and had little direct connection with its greater cause." - THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS
"These [Indian] soldiers shared folk songs and herbal remedies with their comrades across lines of race, nationality, language and faith. Bholanath and Khudabaksh are a light-hearted manifestation of a reality that is underreported. The religions of the men in the trenches were strengthening and galvanising forces, as are for the two heroes who use these to process inexplicable events—in some ways, the absurdness of a hot-air balloon mission draws attention to the senselessness of the carnage." - OPEN MAGAZINE
[Soar[ is an unusually crafted novel with a tinge of magic realism, philosophy and a fair bit of banter.... The battlefront is described well in the book as is the strange European landscape of World War I.... There is humour, tragedy and reflections on the brutality of war." - THE DECCAN HERALD
FIRST POST Book of the Week
Bholanath and Khudabaksh are two soldiers in the British Indian Army, sent off to Europe to fight in World War I. One happens to be Hindu and the other happens to be Muslim, but that doesn't keep them from being the best of friends.
When a mission in a surveillance balloon goes awry, these two gentle soldiers-along with an exceptionally ill-tempered squirrel-are set adrift high above the Western Front. What follows is a grand tragicomic adventure, taking them into the heavens and across a continent gone mad with war. Together, they learn about the worst humankind can do . . . and how true friends, however unalike their identities may be, can soar above it all.
