Night Theatre by  Vikram Paralkar

Night Theatre

Vikram Paralkar

This gripping and tense novel is beautifully written and kept me engaged throughout. While the plot driver might be fantastical - a murdered family returns from the afterlife and has one night for a surgeon to heal their wounds - this story is grounded in reality. The exasperation of the surgeon at his limited equipment and the desperation of the parents wishing to save their children had me racing through to the end.

Extract

Perhaps he could save her husband, so that the boy wouldn't end up all alone.
And then, just for a moment, he allowed himself a thought that was unacceptable for him: perhaps it might be better if he sabotaged the surgeries, made sure that they all died, all three of them. At least in the afterlife they would remain together. Dawn would come, and it would all be over. ... And he would sleep, let his eyelids fall and sleep, let all darken, let the world grow quiet ...

It was dreadful, what he was capable of thinking, what he might even be capable of doing, just to appease the demons of his exhaustion.

Parallels
  • The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma
  • Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield
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Violence