Godzilla and the Songbird

by Manzu Islam

English 436 pages 1 edition

When India is partitioned and riots erupt in Calcutta, Bulbul—an orphan whose ‘soul sings sweet’—flees with his grandparents to their ancestral village, now in East Pakistan. But the divisions of religion, caste and ethnicity have followed them to their new home, and life will always remain a patchwork of darkness and shining light. Bulbul grows up to become a journalist who witnesses and experiences the clash between different individual struggles for meaning in a world torn apart by war, genocide and bigotry. He risks his heart in love, and his life in a mission to expose the corruption of the country’s powerful elite. It appears that he will not live to tell his tale—and that of his people—but he does. For, at the heart of his story is the continuing friendship between three boys with a love of cinema, whose loyalty into adulthood will have surprising outcomes. And in the repeating horror, some hope and beauty will sing. Godzilla and the Songbird is a sweeping novel, universal in its rich humanity and Bangla in image and voice. It has everything: tenderness, terror, humour, sadness, satire, tension and release. Scene after scene of brilliant storytelling drives the narrative, revealing truths and secrets about the difficult emergence of a nation, and the dreams and struggles of individuals caught in the currents of history.