Prelude to a Riot: a Novel

Winner of the Tataiteratureive! Book of the Year Fiction Award 2020 Finalist, JCB Prize foriterature 2020 In a peaceful southern town, amidstush spice plantations, trouble is brewing. In the townive three generations of two families, one Hindu and the other Muslim, whoseives will be changed forever by the coming violence. At risk are Dada, the ageing grandfather whoovingly tends and talks to the plants on his estate; his strong-willed grandchildren, Abu and Fareeda; the newly married Devaki, who cannot fathom the forces that are turning her husband and her father into fanatics; Mariam, of the gifted hands, who kneads and pounds the fatigued muscles of tourists into submission; and Garuda, the high-school teacher who, in his own desperate way, is trying to impart the truth about the country’s history to a classroom of uninterested students. Quietly but surely, the spectre of religious intolerance is beginning to haunt the community in the guise of the Self-Respect Forum whose mission is to divide the town and destroy the delicate balance of respect and cooperation that has existed for hundreds of years. Told with brilliance, restraint and extraordinary power, Annie Zaidi’s book is destined to become a classic.