Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line

A Novel

By: Deepa Anappara

Narrated by: Indira Varma, Himesh Patel, Antonio Aakeel

Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Discover the “extraordinary” (The Washington Post) debut novel that “announces the arrival of a literary supernova” (The New York Times Book Review), “a drama of childhood that is as wild as it is intimate” (Chigozie Obioma).

Nominated for the Edgar® Award

Longlisted for the Women's Prize

Named one of the best books of the year by:

• The New York Times Book Review
• Time
• The Washington Post
• NPR
• The Guardian
• Library Journal

In a sprawling Indian city, three friends venture into the most dangerous corners to find their missing classmate....

Down market lanes crammed with too many people, dogs, and rickshaws, past stalls that smell of cardamom and sizzling oil, below a smoggy sky that doesn’t let through a single blade of sunlight, and all the way at the end of the Purple metro line lies a jumble of tin-roofed homes where nine-year-old Jai lives with his family. From his doorway, he can spot the glittering lights of the city’s fancy high-rises, and though his mother works as a maid in one, to him they seem a thousand miles away. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line plunges listeners deep into this neighborhood to trace the unfolding of a tragedy through the eyes of a child as he has his first perilous collisions with an unjust and complicated wider world.

Jai drools outside sweet shops, watches too many reality police shows, and considers himself to be smarter than his friends Pari (though she gets the best grades) and Faiz (though Faiz has an actual job). When a classmate goes missing, Jai decides to use the crime-solving skills he has picked up from TV to find him. He asks Pari and Faiz to be his assistants, and together they draw up lists of people to interview and places to visit.

But what begins as a game turns sinister as other children start disappearing from their neighborhood. Jai, Pari, and Faiz have to confront terrified parents, an indifferent police force, and rumors of soul-snatching djinns. As the disappearances edge ever closer to home, the lives of Jai and his friends will never be the same again.

Drawing on real incidents and a spate of disappearances in metropolitan India, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line is extraordinarily moving, flawlessly imagined, and a triumph of suspense. It captures the fierce warmth, resilience, and bravery that can emerge in times of trouble and carries the listener headlong into a community that, once encountered, is impossible to forget.

©2020 Deepa Anappara (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“[An] entrancing novel...full of humor, warmth, and heartbreak...Anappara paints all of her characters, even the lost ones, with deep empathy, and her prose is winningly exuberant.... Engaging characters, bright wit, and compelling storytelling make a tale that’s bleak at its core profoundly moving.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

“A model of verisimilitude...[Jai] comes to life on the page to live on in readers’ memories." (Booklist)

“[Anappara’s] bright, propulsive prose...only accentuates the seriousness of her subject: the disappearance of children from villages in India, a real-life issue give intimate treatment here.” (Library Journal)

A Perfect Novel!

A perfect novel, told from the perspective of a lively bunch of boys and girls from a Mumbai slum, exquisitely read.

Wonderful performances, sad story

Anappara has created a rich world by telling the story though the eyes of the nine year old Jai. The readers are wonderful, especially Indira Varma who has one of the most excellent voices I have ever heard. The story is heartbreaking but told with humour and much respect for the rich human tapestry. The basti of this large Indian city comes alive with it’s inhabitants. Most worthwhile.

Characters at their best

The resilience and enthusiasm of the children in this book m, even in the toughest circumstances, made this one of the novels I didn’t want to put down. The afterward by the author was as touching as the wonderful story.

An incredible journey

What an amazing adventure exploring the dusty, littered streets of Jai’s impoverished neighborhood searching for clues with his plucky young friends. He leads us through this tale with humor, heartbreak and love bringing us to a deeper understanding that every life has value and every loss robs us all of a story that never gets told in full. I loved this book and these families who all deserve a better chance.

heartbreaking

Life is cheap in India. The materialistic fawning of wealth is sickenonh and the corruption of ots politics is portrayed with evenhanded dispassion. Modi's India has created an apartheid of cruelty. And thru it all, the sweetness of children allowed me to stay with thos very dark examination of a true phenomenon.

Run Away Best Seller: Djinn Patrol.....

These child detectives will warm your heart and are characters that will haunt you forever! This is just the sort of book that inspires us to help our fellow man or boy, as the case may be. This novel is well worth the 9 hours + listening time. This is one book I doubt you will ever regret. Storytelling at its best!

kept me up at night

This story was beautiful and heart-wrenching, like the country itself. I was alternately amused and appalled, sometimes in the same sentence. There is nothing quite like seeing the world through the eyes of a 9-year-old under threat, who still wants to play and sometimes do his homework.

Too much detail at the expense of the story

The writing is vivid, the characters and urban landscape are portrayed beautifully, but the story is lost at their expense. The silent horrors experienced by children and their vulnerable lives makes for a great subject, but the book suffers from not co tinging a straight story line and this made it difficult to continue.

Fabulous book - lively narration !

This book - told from the perspective of nine year old Jai - starts out feeling similar to a middle grade detective story but that feeling is quickly dispelled by the harsh reality of poverty and violence in an Indian basti or slum. The beautifully drawn characters and child perspective make the hopelessness quite a bit more bearable. Beautifully written without tricking the reader into cheap pity but with loads of empathy. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line succeeds as a mix of the very worst and very best of humanity because it is told with an empathetic eye from a writer who spent many years as a journalist reporting on the many issues plaguing Indian society.

Hope even when it may seem superfluous is what really keeps people going !

A wonderful story !

opening eyes for an important matter

The book was interesting already because it was about India. The story told from a young boys perspective got a very different turn and points it fingers on a very deep wound in the society