Praise for
THE CRIPPLE AND HIS TALISMANS

“A highly imaginative novel, full of humour, poetry, and insights, written in a beautiful, spare style. Throughout the narrative looms a great city, Bombay, crazily reflected in the life of one of its inhabitants who, by means baffling, heinous, desperate, and often very funny, seeks to embrace the divine with both arms.”

—Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi

“[Irani’s] brilliant debut novel, The Cripple and His Talismans, radiates with the energy of Bombay, albeit a dark energy.… Irani commands attention from the first sentence.”

— The Globe and Mail

“[The Cripple and His Talismans] makes demands on the reader, but our effort is triply rewarded — first, by the lush imagery of the writing; second, because of its surprises and, finally, because of its deep moral gravity.… This debut novel marks a step in the evolution of Canadian literature.”

— Vancouver Sun

“Irani captures the cadence and inflections of his surreal Bombay perfectly. [He] does an amazing job creating his own universe with its own rules and expectations.… Irani gives us a virulent text and a memorably complex narrator: part psychopath, part disaffected rich kid, part bohemian wanderer through a singularly imagined world.”

— National Post

“An impressive debut, a beautifully written modern-day fable.”

— Ottawa Citizen

“Anosh Irani has an eye for the absurdities of human existence and an ear for the comedy inherent in nearly everything we say. This is a marvelous debut.”

—BBC News, The World Books

“A remarkable book. The writing is stylish, and the author’s willingness to take risks, disarming.”

— Edmonton Journal

“[Irani] may be a genius. He is absolutely a writer to watch.… Irani’s writing is both simple and startling, his musing on faith and morality especially quirky and strong.… The Cripple and His Talismans is downright splendid.”

— The Asian Reporter

“A book with a message, but one that is artfully and originally integrated into an entertaining and accessible fable structure. The language is rich, and the dialogue precise and nuanced.”

— Times Colonist (Victoria)

“The Cripple and His Talismans is not for those of a tender stomach, but it does show a certain tenderness towards the citizens of a city that seem to defy description at closer range. The novel is clearly not bound by the narrow dictates of realism, and it is through this freedom that a sense of its underlying social reality is so effectively conveyed.”

— Times Literary Supplement