A Free Man: A True Story of Life and Death in Delhi
“A deeply moving, funny, and brilliantly written account from one of India’s most original new voices.” (Katherine Boo, author of Behind the Beautiful Forevers)“Funny, poignant, and deeply moving,A Free Manis an extraordinary vignette into an extraordinary life.” (Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies)“A Free Manis a brilliant capturing of the language and bloodstream of a city. Aman Sethi has made a book that’s remarkable in its voice and evocation.” (Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient)“A Free Manis stunning. It reminds me of that Victorian masterpiece of investigative journalism, Henry Mayhew’sLondon LabourandLondon Poor.Aman Sethi ‘gets’ modern India better than any other journalist I know. Not only is he a remarkable reporter and storyteller, but he possesses a novelist’s ear for language, sense of the absurd, and perfect pitch. I’m bowled over, totally.” (Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind and Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius)“A Free Manis a beautiful work of journalism, sympathetic and graceful. The author follows, and progressively befriends, a homeless day laborer in Delhi. What starts as classic ethnography becomes a gripping story, and ends as a homage to a lost friend.” (Esther Duflo, author of Poor Economics and MacArthur Fellow)“WithA Free Man, Aman Sethi comes to the forefront of an extraordinary new generation of Indian nonfiction writers. His compassion and humor is matched by a fierce determination to tell the stories of ordinary Indians, too often forgotten in the scramble for the spoils of the economic boom.” (Hari Kunzru, author of Gods Without Men)“Funny and disturbing.” (Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things)“A Free Manmakes no promise of a happy ending. Perhaps no book about contemporary Indian society can. But it delivers more. It takes readers on a journey they might otherwise not go on. And that the destination is neither secret nor hidden shows that sometimes what matters isn’t what’s beyond our reach. It’s what’s before our eyes.” (Sonia Faleiro - New York Times Book Review)