History's Angel
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3 Months Free
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Offer ends on 15 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
History's Angel
Narrated by:
Sagar Arya
Buy Now for £14.18
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Narrated by:
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Sagar Arya
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By:
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Anjum Hasan
From the Man Asian Literary Prize-longlisted author, the story of a middle-aged man in contemporary India discovering that neither his life nor his country are as stable as he thought.
Alif is a middle-aged, mild-mannered history teacher, living in contemporary Delhi, at a time when Muslims in India are seen either as hapless victims or live threats. Though his life's passion is the history he teaches, it's the present that presses down on him: his wife is set on a bigger house and a better car while trying to ace her MBA exams; his teenage son wants to quit school to get rich; his supercilious colleagues are suspicious of a Muslim teaching India's history; and his old friend Ganesh has just reconnected with a childhood sweetheart with whom Alif was always rather enamored himself.
And then the unthinkable happens. While Alif is leading a school field trip, a student goads him and, in a fit of anger, Alif twists his ear. His job suddenly on the line, Alif finds his life rapidly descending into chaos.
Meanwhile, his home city, too, darkens under the spreading shadow of violence. In this darkly funny, sharply observed and deeply moving novel, Anjum Hasan deftly and delicately explores the force and the consequences of remembering your people’s history in an increasingly indifferent milieu.©2023 Anjum Hasan (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
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Critic reviews
[A] wonderfully restrained, shrewdly comic novel . . . Ms. Hasan grants this hero such a complete inner life—and surrounds him with such finely drawn characters—that the very air he breathes seems dense with thoughts and longings . . . There is as much history, then, in this quiet novel as there is in any sweeping epic by Amitav Ghosh. And as much tension—between the fading past and the frenzied present—as there is in Aravind Adiga’s ‘The White Tiger’ . . . Retrograde or not, the quotidian world of Delhi, ‘the city on which the apocalypse descends every day,’ is conjured up by Ms. Hasan with acuity and palpable affection.
Erudite and languid … Hasan frequently blends her chronicle of Alif’s problems with insightful internal monologues, in which he reflects on the country’s history and simmering anti-Muslim sentiments. Hasan’s layering of history and personal drama accrues a subtle but undeniable power.
Hasan bitingly dramatizes the increasing religious intolerance brewing in modern India . . . the novel efficiently shows class and religion can make or break a man.
Hasan’s honest and delicate portrayal of a Muslim community in contemporary Delhi is told through the eyes of a middle-aged teacher whose life is upended after a small outburst. It is an eye-opening story that will move readers with its sharp observations and crafty writing.
A portrait of an individual as well as a nation in transition, History’s Angel traces the fading of the secular promise of the Indian nation—and the richness of its multifaith culture—under its current, Hindu nationalist regime, and the growing intolerance in society . . . History’s Angel exemplifies and makes a case for the role of literature in preserving the marginal and diverse aspects of a society.
Hasan's prose is introspective, carefully observed, and imbued with more than what is said . . . [Her] gaze is clear-sighted and unflinching.
Remarkable and insightful . . . Engrossing . . . Elegant.
Genius... one of the finest Indian writers alive.
Craftily written . . . The elegant, pondered and deep-reaching prose of this collection allows subversive humour to surface effortlessly . . . The 230 pages are filled with underlineable gems . . . Hasan explores many of the relevant experiences of life in present-day.
HISTORY'S ANGEL is a seething seismic tale about the disturbing times the Muslims of India are living through, in ever growing dread of worse to come. Told in a subdued, sad, ironical tenor, it is compassionate without being sentimental. The novel asserts humanity and hope in the face of widening fissures through its main protagonist who, drawing sustenance from a deep historical perspective, refuses to play the victim and negotiates the situation empathetically.
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