Necropolis Author:Avtar Singh "Necropolis is a ravishing beauty of prose that is as sumptuous as it is gripping . . . Imagine a cocktail of V.S. Naipaul, Agatha Christie, Elmore Leonard, and E.M. Forster, and you have the essence of this haunting and ferociously charming novel."?Ken Bruen, author of Green Hell"Avtar Singh's Necropolis is an ode to ancient, medieval, and Old ... more »Delhi, a romantic ballad that cuts across time, if not place, and melds features of classic detective fiction with those of the hard-boiled and roman noir in a style that is exquisitely the author's."?Sumana Mukherjee, MintNecropolis follows Sajan Dayal, a detective in pursuit of a serial (though nonlethal) collector of fingers. Dayal's team encounters would-be vampires and werewolves, and a woman named Razia who may or may not be centuries old. Guided by Singh's gorgeous and masterful writing, the novel peels back layers of a city in thrall to its past, hostage to its present, and bitterly divided as to its future. Delhi went from being an imperial capital to provincial backwater in a few centuries: the journey back to exploding commercial metropolis has been compressed into a few short decades. This book tackles the questions of origin, ownership, and class that such a revolution inevitably raises.Combining elements of crime, fantasy, and noir, Necropolis examines the human condition with gorgeous prose and, at the same time, is a portrait of the city that so devastates and defines modern India. The world of Delhi, the sweep of its history?its grandeur, grimness, and criminality?all of it comes alive in Necropolis.Avtar Singh is the author of The Beauty of These Present Things. He has worked as a magazine editor in Mumbai and Delhi. He lives in Delhi with his wife, son, and singing dog.« less