I am reminded of the poem by Lord Tennyson on The brook where he says the following:

For men may come and men may go,  but I go on forever.

A little analogy of the river to land would be read like this, men may come and men may go but I stay on forever.

Vagaries of nature and the way it has affected us and the everlasting inspiration for man to control nature is always beset with troubles and problems which extends to generations.

Here in this novel, No Man’s Land the author Nilesh Shrivastava very vividly takes us through a myriad of relationship of the characters in the novel , the relationships between a father and a son, an estranged father to a bastard son and of a wife and a mistress and much more revolving all around a piece of land which today is valued at crores and crores of rupees. And as they say every land has a history and the story unravels with its past and a tumultuous present.

With a setting as real as the Gurgaon realty, it is but natural that the author makes a piece of land infact a farmland the central theme of the novel. Around the land are characters built with unique perspective to what it means to them and there you go a scintillating story of men and women who take you on the ride with their whims and fancies taking over them.

I also found the naming of the characters pretty telling especially Karan and the uncle Dushyanth. Not to miss Agastya the central character, Pranay the narrator of this tale, Shreya his girl friend et al. The characters themselves stand out for whatever they are good, bad and in between moderate voices. The story moves very fast and why not the life is fast as ever.

There are times when it goes on expected lines and times when you get the twist at the unexpected times. There is romance, there is stalking, there is betrayal , treachery, deceit in optimum doses and these get played right in front of you as you turn the pages. Fast paced and well thought of plot this will leave you dazed and show a picture of what’s happening around you.

The author has succeeded to bring three generations in a seamless time frame with the change in perceptions and how ethics and things have changed and redefined themselves in the days they live.

May be sometimes the author’s been harsh on those characters but in the end he brings home peace suggesting that there are more things to life than those who value money or the land. If you think hard, probably every land is No man’s Land.

Pick this book for a fast paced read, you will finish this before know it. Some images will leave an imprint, sometimes you might see them in the realtor next door.

Thanks a lot to the publishers Finger Print for sending this review copy.

To pick up your own copy please visit:

Flipkart: http://www.flipkart.com/no-man-s-land/p/itmdppznhxysvhya?q=No+Man%27s+Land&as=on&as-show=on&otracker=start&as-pos=p_1&pid=9788172344825

Amazon: http://www.amazon.in/No-Mans-Land-Nilesh-Shrivastava/dp/8172344821/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394957468&sr=1-1

Senthilkumar