The thing about thugs
By: Tabish Khair
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780547731605
Subjects: Thugs (Indic criminal group); Indic fiction (English); FICTION / Literary; FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Historical; History; FICTION / Historical; Fiction
Description: "In a small Bihari village, Captain William T. Meadows finds just the man to further his phrenological research back home: Amir Ali, confessed member of the infamous Thugee cult. With tales of a murderous youth redeemed, Ali gains passage to England, his villainously shaped skull there to be studied. Only Ali knows just how embroidered his story is, so when a killer begins depriving London's underclass of their heads, suspicion naturally falls on the "thug." With help from fellow immigrants led by a shrewd Punjabi woman, Ali journeys deep into a hostile city in an attempt to save himself and end the gruesome murders.  Ranging from skull-lined mansions to underground tunnels concealing a ghostly people, The Thing about Thugs is a feat of imagination to rival Wilkie Collins or Michael Chabon. Short-listed for the 2010 Man Asian Literary Prize, this Victorian role reversal is a sly take on the post-colonial novel and marks the arrival of a compelling Indian novelist to North America. "--