The Enemy Within

This translation from the Bangla Antarghat is the story of a group of young friends who had committed themselves idealistically and politically to the Naxalite movement that rocked Bengal in the 1960s. Many years later, they still carry the scars beneath their lives of surface calm. But they also share the secret of a betrayal, one that was fatally injurious to some. Into this fragile, obscure universe arrives their betrayer, ironically seeking anonymity. Jagged wounds reopen and death follows. Is it suicide or murder, expiation or vengeance? Moving seamlessly from the past to the present, Basu’s narrative is compelling and breathless, as the novel’s edgy, nervous rhythms reconstruct and call up the turbulent history of a difficult period.