The Girl from Nongrim Hills
The Girl from Nongrim Hills is a 2013 fiction novel by Indian author Ankush Saikia.[1] The book was first published on October 1, 2013, through Penguin India and is Saikia's second novel, following his 2007 book Jet City Woman and is his third published book.
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Author | Ankush Saikia |
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Country | India |
Language | English |
Genre | Fiction |
Published | 2013, Penguin India |
Media type | Print, e-book |
Pages | 240 pages |
ISBN | 0143421190 |
Preceded by | Spotting Veron and other Stories |
Followed by | Dead Meat (Arjun Arora no.1) |
Development
Saikia came up with the idea for The Girl from Nongrim Hills after coming up with the idea of "money changing hands in a hotel room in Shillong" and came up with two of the book's characters shortly afterwards.[2] He chose to include elements such as extortion, arms smuggling, and kidnapping as they were "only too common in the Northeast" and believed that it would "provide the basis for a good noir story".[2] He chose to set the story in Shillong as he was familiar with the area and saw that several scenes in the book would work well with the city.[3] He based the characters of Bok and Kitdor on several Shillong boys he knew and took Bok's enjoyment of 80s music from Saikia's own enjoyment of the music from that era.[3] It took Saikia ten months to write The Girl from Nongrim Hills and he found the editing and resolution of the novel to be the most challenging aspects of its writing.[3]
Reception
Critical reception The Girl from Nongrim Hills has been mostly positive.[4][5] IBNLive noted that while the book did have one inaccuracy, they found the book hard to put down and enjoyed Saikia's writing overall.[6] The New Indian Express and Deccan Herald also gave positive reviews for The Girl from Nongrim Hills, and both papers praised the book for its characters and pacing.[7][8]
References
- O'Yeah, Zac (11 January 2014). "A year of many thrills". Live Mint. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
- "Interview: Ankush Saikia". Time Out Bengaluru. Archived from the original on 24 May 2014. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
- Boange, Dilshan. "Exploring voices for Indian thriller fiction". Sunday Observer. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
- Prabhakar, Anu (26 January 2014). "Where's India's Agatha Christie?". Mid-Day. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
- "Print Pick". The Hindu. 30 October 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
- Choudhury, Soumyadip. "'The Girl from Nongrim Hills' review: An 80 kmph ride through Shillong". IBNLive. Archived from the original on 24 October 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
- Sandhu, Amandeep. "A slice of thrill in Shillong". NIE. Retrieved 24 May 2014.
- Subramanian, Lalitha (14 December 2013). "Northeast noir". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 24 May 2014.