{"product_id":"railsong-rahul-bhattacharya-hardcover","title":"Railsong -- Rahul Bhattacharya, Hardcover","description":"\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLonglisted for The Kalinga Literary Festival Book Prize in Fiction\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\"Magnificent . . . I would follow Miss Chitol to the ends of the earth.\" -Kamila Shamsie\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\n\u003cb\u003e\n\n\"Profoundly tender [and] vigorously alive to the currents of national change\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e.\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e -Megha Majumdar\n\n\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\u003cb\u003eA breathtaking novel about a woman forging a life for herself on the railways, \u003ci\u003eRailsong \u003c\/i\u003eis the heartwarming story of an individual coming of age amid the social and political upheavals of twentieth-century India. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn a newly independent India charged with national vigour, Charu, the motherless daughter of a railway worker, pines for freedom from the shackles of her impoverishment and meagre prospects. As diesel engines replace steam and the calamitous churn of drought, famine, and a great strike engulfs her town, Charu dares to imagine a different future for herself. She boards a train and flees westwards, leaving behind the oppressive domesticity of her childhood for the alluring modernity, and apparent opportunities, of Bombay. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eUnfazed by the everyday discriminations around her she becomes an unlikely hero: a railway woman and census enumerator who keeps her heart open-sometimes guilelessly-to her nation's vast possibility. Sweeping, elegiac, and at times wonderfully comic, \u003ci\u003eRailsong \u003c\/i\u003eis a powerful portrait of grit, optimism, and the force of character that enables one remarkable woman to live on her own terms in a country full of contradictions.\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e Rahul Bhattacharya\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Bloomsbury Publishing\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublished:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2\/17\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 416\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/strong\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWeight:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.38 lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9.41\" H x 6.43\" L x 1.45\" W\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9781639736225\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Flowerburst","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50778088374576,"sku":"9781639736225","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2712\/8368\/files\/9781639736225.jpg?v=1777874913","url":"https:\/\/flowerburst.co\/products\/railsong-rahul-bhattacharya-hardcover","provider":"Flowerburst","version":"1.0","type":"link"}