The Village by Nikita Lalwani

The Blurb On The Back:

After a long journey from England, Ray Bullard arrives early on a winter morning at the gates of the Indian village which will be her home for the next three months. The door of the hut she will share with Serena, her English co-worker, is a loose sheet of metal, the windows holes in the walls. Outside, village life goes on as normal.

And yet, the village is far from normal. It is an open prison - a village of murderers. And when Ray and her crew take up residence to observe and to make a film, they are innocent visitors in a violent world, on a mission to hold the village up to viewers as the ultimate example of tolerance.

But the longer the visitors stay and their need for drama intensifies, the line between innocence and guilt begins to blue and an unexpected and terrifying kind of cruelty emerges.

A mesmerising and heartfelt tale of manipulation and personal morality, Nikita Lalwani’s The VIllage brilliantly exposes how truly frail our judgment can be.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Nikita Lalwani’s literary novel about prisons, personal morality and the manipulative techniques of documentary film-makers has some interesting ideas but hinges on a main character who is simply too naive and weak to be believable or one who I could empathise with. At the same time, I was uncomfortable with how two-dimensional the Indian characters all are - including Nandini - while the open ending felt like a tacked on cop-out.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.