Nirmal Babu's Bride

Alison Mukherjee

Alison Mukherjee was born in Britain and has lived and worked in India. She obtained a Masters in Theology from Serampore College, West Bengal, and recently completed a Ph.D at the Mission Studies department of Birmingham University. She has taught Religious Studies in schools and colleges, and is currently employed as a qualified social worker. She is married and has three grown up children. Nirmal Babu's Bride is her first novel.

Nirmal Babu's Bride
A young woman returns home, briefly, determined to understand why her family has been torn apart, why she had to grow up alone with her mother while her father and siblings were separated by a culture and a continent, why they are all unwilling to acknowledge the hurt-shaped holes in their lives. She returns to discover the gentle love that they continue to cherish for each other and to be pleasantly surprised that even after so many years each of them is prepared to open the door a little and let the feelings flow in.
Set in contemporary Bengal against the backdrop of communal tension, Alison Mukherjee's debut novel sketches a story that deals with relationships, religion and life – the sutures that develop, the rifts that widen, the wounds that heal.
Nirmal Babu's Bride is a riveting read – the author, an extraordinary storyteller.

Bengali Christians, social work in England, Bible translation, Christian insecurity as the BJP take power – these are just some of the elements woven together by Alison Mukherjee with first-hand knowledge and consummate skill. Absorbing, mysterious and heartfelt, her novel takes its readers into new realms.
It will leave them subtly changed.
– William Radice

Nirmal Babu's Bride is a delight to read: Rupa's quest to solve the mystery that keeps her father and mother on separate continents held my attention from beginning to end. And my imagination was captivated by the keenly observed detail of Bengali life.
The particular predicament of South Asian Christians has been too long ignored by novelists. Alison Mukherjee's novel illuminates with sensitive integrity those powerful themes of identity, religion, generation and gender Mukherjee writes with authority and compassion and deserves a wide readership.
I hope that another novel will not be long in following Nirmal Babu's Bride.

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