Blurb (from the jacket):
ONE NATION | ONE RELIGION | ONE WAY OF LIFE
Welcome to a land called Dvarca.
At the turn of the 22nd century, the world is a mess of warring factions (surprise!). The powers-that-be have fought insanity with an equal and opposite insanity. India has been remodelled under a new bicolour flag, and a State religion called Navmarg. Anyone who does not belong, is a threat.
Madhav Mathur's Dvarca is a dark and humorous satire that follows the life of an ordinary family, struggling to get by, in this totalitarian regime. Gandharva, is a patriotic and pious low-level bureaucrat at the Ministry of Finance and Salvation, working hard on his status and overdue promotion. His dutiful and curious wife, Jyoti, works at Dvarca Mills and witnesses a ghastly act of terror, leading to perilous flirtations with dissent. Their two little children, Nakul and Mira, are model students in their predestined streams, indoctrinated and well on their way to becoming faithful and productive citizens.
The State religion and cutting-edge science combine to create new ways to make citizens safe, and to hound and hunt those who do not conform. Everything is 'perfect' in this controlled and policed system, until one fateful night, a man happens to break routine . . .
My take on the book:
I was given a foray of books, new arrivals, from Fingerprint Publishers, and I was to choose from them to review. They were mostly non-fictions, this batch. I reverted back informing, as always, that we were not particularly into non-fictions and we would love if there were any fictions out there, that's when we were offered this.
Though the title wasn't so appealing, the plot got me gripped. I always been an obsessive fan of apocalyptic stories: those where the human race has gone almost completely extinct or half-extinct human race fighting the odds coming up with an glitchless societal system. This book is the story that is latter.
The cover design is very good, compared to what I see to the new arrivals in the bookstore these days. Way better and apt to the point of the story.
This book receives the rating a star lesser than I intend to rate it. All because of the obscurity of the fact that this is a part of a trilogy. Believe me, there were times, pretty engrossed in the story, but I notice that I was three-thirds through it. I know the ending couldn't be staged in those remaining 80-something pages. I stopped reading, bookmarked the page, search the entire cover for a mention about the series. There were none. Not on the cover, not in the blurb, not even a tiny mention of it anywhere on the book. Only after completing the book, left hanging in a story without a proper conclusion, that I did come across the mention of a trilogy in the Acknowledgement section of it.
First thing, I do, I go on GoodReads, update this new piece of information that I've just learnt and then started writing this review.
Leaving the above trait alone, which is no small flaw to be forgiven, the book is very good. The amount of knowledge; those little metaphors that connected the class system of Dvarca to the popular Hindu myths; the language used; the narration itself were so good, it is hard to believe that this is the author's second book. The flow of the story was so great, I didn't once feel like taking a break. I read this every moment I got time. It was more like completing the book, it was story that keep you going.
Overall, it was a very thrilling read, but, like mentioned earlier, the reader should've been made aware that it is the part of Dvarca Series. With no other option left, I eagerly wait for the remaining books.
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Title: Dvarca
Author: Madhav Mathur
Series: Dvarca Series
ISBN (edition I've read): 9788175993853
Rating: 
Read between: 12-01-2017 to 17-01-2017
Reviewed for: Fingerprint! Publishers
Publishers: Fingerprint! Publishers
Pages: 335
MRP: ₹ 295
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