Bombay--London--New York

Amitava Kumar is Associate Professor of English at Penn State and the author of Passport Photos. His poetry and non-fiction have appeared in The Nation, Harper's, and the New Statesman, among others. He is the winner of the Asian Age Award for short fiction.He aslo wrote the script and narrated the prize-wining documentary film Pure Chutney.

"[Kumar's] literary criticism is effortless and illuminating...his analysis of the Indian underclass and social unrest is incisive. When Kumar is personal and honest he is most effective. His observations on Naipaul and Rushdie, in particular, are balanced and insightful. Kumar is clearly capable of great narrative." -- Persimmon"This intriguing book illuminates both the writers examined and the act of writing as a means of re-creating the past. Highly recommended for literary collections and all large public and academic libraries." -- LibraryJournal"...[a] wilful, engaging book on Indian fiction in English, where it is always clear that there is a relationship between literary journeys and those embarked on in real life, between the flow of words and the movement of people and things, and between the reader's act of finding the literary centre and the writer's task of illuminating the periphery." -- Times LiterarySupplement"Bombay-London-New York is a riveting book. Kumar's passion for his subject matter is infectious. But he is doing much more than simply providing illuminating insights into Indian cultural life in the West. He is showing a way forward for cultural criticism, with the critic as an insightful storyteller. It is the wave of the future." -- Independent"Kumar is a skilled storyteller. He manages to pull the different strands of his narrative - the autobiography, the anxieties of the writer in exile, the evolution of indigenous varieties of Indianness in London and New York - with considerable success. His prose is always elegant, his ideas always pulsate with energy and his humanity shines through every page." -- Independent"[Bombay-London-New York] is not so much a well-cooked biryani, where different ingredients are synthesized into a holistic meal, but more a juicy, multi-layered club sandwich." -- Independent"This is a work of luminous imagination and tenderness. Amitava Kumar is a startling story teller: that rare cultural critic who writes from and for the heart. When last did any academic so successfully harmonize a love of language with a passion for ideas? This book will surely establish Kumar as one of the most eloquent, searching public intellectuals of his generation. Rob Nixon Rachel Carson Professor of English, University of Wisconsin, Madison and author of Dreambirds."" As a literary critic, memoirist and social historian, Amitava Kumar is a rare and bracing presence in the world of Indian writing in English. He is a connoisseur of texts, always alert to the felicitous phrase and image, but his greater achievement lies in illuminating the individual and collective histories that a young literature emerges from" - Pankaj Mishra.""[Bombay-London-New York] is not so much a well-cooked biryani, where different ingredients are synthesized into a holistic meal, but more a juicy, multi-layered club sandwich." -- Independent"As a literary critic, memoirist and social historian, Amitava Kumar is a rare and bracing presence in the world of Indian writing in English. He is a connoisseur of texts, always alert to the felicitous phrase and image, but his greater achievement lies in illuminating the individual and collective histories that a young literature emerges from." -- Pankaj Mishra"This is a work of luminous imagination and tenderness. Amitava Kumar is a startling story teller: that rare cultural critic who writes from and for the heart. When last did any academic so successfully harmonize a love of language with a passion for ideas? This book will surely establish Kumar as one of the most eloquent, searching public intellectuals of his generation." -- Rob Nixon Rachel Carson, Professor of English, University of Wisconsin, Madison and author of Dreambirds.

• 1: Paper; 2: Going Back; I: Part I; 3: Bombay; 4: In the Light of Small Towns; 5: Writer in the Hinterland; II: Part II; 6: London; 7: Pure Chutney; 8: My Hanif Kureishi Life; III: Part III; 9: New York; 10: Digital City; 11: Traveling Light; 12: Flight; 13: Epilogue