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The Girl from Nongrim Hills
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Wikipedia article
'The Girl from Nongrim Hills' is a 2013 fiction novel by Indian author Ankush Saikia. The book was first published on October 1, 2013 through Penguin India and is Saikia's second novel, following his 2007 book 'Jet City Woman' and is his third published book.
Synopsis
Bok, a guitar player with a Shillong band, has a lot on his mind. His elder brother Kitdor has lost 50 lakh rupees on a trip to Nagaland to purchase arms for a group of militants. Kitdor is given a week to repay the money, and the only person he can turn to is his laid-back younger brother. Bok is helpless until a chance encounter with a beautiful woman provides him with a desperate solution. But fate cant be cheated and soon the hapless musician is tangled in her web of lies. He must outmaneuver her and the trail of politicians, militants and cops she leaves in her wake, and find the 50 lakhs in time if he is to save his brother. Dark, atmospheric and utterly gripping, 'The Girl from Nongrim Hills' is a superb thriller and a great Shillong novel.
Development
Saikia came up with the idea for 'The Girl from Nongrim Hills' after coming up with the idea of "money changing hands in a hotel room in Shillong" and came up with two of the book's characters shortly afterwards. He chose to include elements such as extortion, arms smuggling, and kidnapping as they were "only too common in the Northeast" and believed that it would "provide the basis for a good noir story". He chose to set the story in Shillong as he was familiar with the area and saw that several scenes in the book would work well with the city. He based the characters of Bok and Kitdor on several Shillong boys he knew and took Bok's enjoyment of 80s music from Saikia's own enjoyment of the music from that era. It took Saikia ten months to write 'The Girl from Nongrim Hills' and he found the editing and resolution of the novel to be the most challenging aspects of its writing.
Reception
Critical reception 'The Girl from Nongrim Hills' has been mostly positive. 'IBNLive' noted that while the book did have one inaccuracy, they found the book hard to put down and enjoyed Saikia's writing overall. 'The New Indian Express' and 'Deccan Herald' also gave positive reviews for 'The Girl from Nongrim Hills', and both papers praised the book for its characters and pacing.
References
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