Chowringhee

Every 15 years an Indian novel comes along which you never want to end .
Chowringhee, first published in Bengali in 1962, is a sprawling saga of the intimate lives of managers, employees and guests at one of Calcutta's largest hotels, the Shahjahan. Shankar, the newest recruit, recounts the stories of the inhabitants of the suites, restaurants, bars and backrooms of the hotel. As both observer and participant, he tells of the unfulfilled desires, broken dreams, callous manipulations and unbidden tragedies of those who work and live there - the enigmatic manager Marco Polo, the debonair receptionist Sata Bose, and the tragic hostess Karabi Guha, among others. What unfolds is not just the story of individual lives but also the glittering chronicle of a lost metropolis.