A Crowd of Sorrows

Fiction. PAPER LIONS is Sohan Koonar's new novel. Told from three distinct points of view, PAPER LIONS is an epic multi-generational novel of India from just before the Second World War to the 1960s. Its characters--Bikram, Basanti, and Ajit and their families and children--endure heartbreaks, despair, and insurmountable challenges often leading to poignant, tragic, or exhilarating moments and rare wins. Yet they find a way to continue. The novel also recounts the story of two tribes of nomads--Bajigars--of which very little remains in modern Indian culture. Vast in its scope, range and emotion, PAPER LIONS brings historical India itself to life in the voices of its characters. It's like a Downton Abbey for India, complete with the family secrets, class struggles, and great drama for all of the characters. Through their struggles India, with it's newfound freedoms after partition, comes of age as they do.