One Small Voice

One Small Voice by Shantanu Bhattacharya – Book group choice March 2024

One Small Voice by Shantanu Bhattacharya is an Observer Best Debut Novel for 2023.  The story is set across two time periods; the 1980s through to 2016 and follows Shubhankar (Shabby) Trivedi through his childhood in Lucknow into adulthood in Mumbai.  As a child Shabby attends a christian school, not for any religious reason but because his parents hope it will give him and his brother a good education and the chance of a better life than they have enjoyed.  Shabby is a good artist and he is encouraged by an art teacher to develop his talent.  

Shabby’s Hindu childhood was marked by cultural and religious riots and at the age of 10 he witnessed and was injured in an horrific act of mob violence against a young man who was a muslim.  Shabby and his family do not talk about this incident and the trauma remains held within Shabby throughout his life into adulthood.  As an adult in Mumbai Shabby is able to enjoy many freedoms and a more western orientated way of life.  He shares a flat and has a group of friends from different cultural backgrounds and works for an American company.  This provides alternative perspectives to those he had as a child and for a time his life goes well.  However, he  is then caught up in another act of violence when he steps in to protect a stranger and he himself is left with life changing injuries.  This resulted in a long period of sick leave from his employment negotiated by his father and although he did initially return to work he found the daily grind futile and resigned on an impulse while drawing flamingos.  This rekindles Shabby’s desire to paint and he is eventually able to use his talent as an artist to pay tribute to the young man who died. 

The group generally found this book quite unsettling with an obvious looming disaster introduced early in the narrative but not articulated. Those members who know India and its cultural norms were able to identify with the story and found that some of the secondary issues raised were credible.  All members found the ever changing timeline difficult to follow and detracted from the narrative.  However, the individual incidents were well described and provide a detailed picture of life in this part of India.  The early introduction of “the incident” may have been a device to draw the reader in but this was not effective for all members of the group.  When ‘the incident’ arrived in the narrative it was introduced casually and without explanation or context which was not helpful in keeping the reader engaged.  Several in the group drew parallels between the religious violence and antagonism depicted in the story and similar issues today both in India and elsewhere globally.

The story raised issues of how unprocessed trauma has a lasting effect on the individual, particularly when experienced in childhood.  The group had a very interesting discussion about the reaction of Shabby’s parents to the incident and their unwillingness to address it and we were fortunate to have the perspective of those brought up in India who explained the importance of family in providing a supportive social structure and the necessity of maintaining that structure at all costs.

For most of the group it was not clear whether this book was written for an Indian or western audience.  If it were a western audience then the group agreed it would be helpful to have a glossary of some of the colloquial terms used in the narrative.  However, it would appear that this is possibly aimed at an Indian audience and as such the author has shown courage in raising the issues covered in this narrative.  This view is strengthened by the way the author portrays some American characters who are employed to provide aid in the slums around Mumbai.  Ultimately they return to the US because they find it difficult to fit into Indian culture.  Shabby is left with a positive future at the end of the book but there was scepticism in the group whether he would fulfil the opportunities presented.