You Beneath Your Skin by Damyanti Biswas

  

“Sabke andar daag hotey hain. Pawan’s voice shook. All of us have scars, secrets.”

A Profound line that resonates with you long after you have put down this thriller/murder mystery/literary novel.

A Line filled with a much deeper ethos than what you see at a simple glance.

A line filled with strata of anguish, misery, pain, betrayal and ultimately truth. All revealed as you peel back layers upon layers of the story and yourself as well.

Much like how you peel away layer upon layer of an onion, each giving rise to a multitude of tears that eventually result in good health (when you eat it, onions are one of nature’s healers),‘You Beneath Your Skin’ has diverse layers that you peel back to reveal the hidden truths beneath.

A debutante novel by Damyanti, it shows no hesitation or faltering of any kind. Instead it strives ahead showing heroic strength in its characters, in the myriad topics it covers and most importantly in the authors writing style.

The richness of style, strangely bought back memories of Anita Desai’s Fire on the Mountain and the black humour in it.

If I were to even attempt to give the story-line in gist I would go with the thriller/murder mystery part of the book as that’s both the shortest as well as the one where I might not give away the plot.

The story set in Delhi focuses on an Indo-American woman called Anjali (brilliantly and aptly named as you will find out when you read the book) and her life and its various connections/layers. One of these layers is a set of rapes, murders and acid attacks of women in the slums of Delhi, its subsequent follow up by Special Commissioner of Crime, Jatin Bhatt and the myriad directions it unravels in.

As with all the rest of the layers in this book, even the thriller part minces no words and shows you the truth, yes it is the harsh truth, but that unfortunately is reality.

A reality that the author exposes to you in a sublime manner that depending on the mood you are in will be a racy thriller or an introspection into the world we live in and our attitude towards it. A world which like Delhi’s smog is filled with life’s vagaries from autism, rape, murder, prostitution, acid attacks to socio-political scenarios and of course the bane and savior of our lives – LOVE.

As a person who has grown up hearing ghazals nearly every day absolutely loved the few nazams peppered in throughout the book. Would have loved if the author had added in a line by line translation of the same so all could understand the nuances of the mood better. Thankfully the gist of them is mentioned.

The murder mystery aficionado in me craved for more stories of the Vigil detective agency and its chief investigators Maya and Pawan (people who like Remington Steele and Castle will love these two). Hopefully my wish gets granted and a second novel only on their antics comes out soon.

The underlying theme that I took away from this book was beauty, the tendency of people to be narcissists and our continuous need to be perfect. A perfection that makes us want to hide and not face up to the truth right in front of us.

Beneath that theme lies another deeper layer, a layer that resounds with the first noble truth - Life is suffering. How the protagonist learns to kick ass back and realize what lies within can inspire you to do more, think more and question yourself.

Who are you, beneath your skin?

So glad I got this ARC it really made me sit back and introspect a lot on life. Hope you liked my fair and honest review.

Happy Reading😊