‘Silence can be such a strong emotion that it can have a world of its own with real life like characters who won’t leave your psyche even after you have finished reading the book.’
‘The Labyrinth of Silence' is a labour of love by Dr. Aparna Salvi Nagda, and this novel was no less than a literary fiction for me. It's slow burn and I loved how the author has used her power of relaxed yet profound narration throughout the book while you keep turning the pages one after another that will take you to the silent world of Muki, Girish and Kashi. The three characters are the most pivotal ones in the novel and the rest of the characters complete their presence too.
The story starts with the silent world of Mukta aka Muki in the book, who is dumb from birth, but her mute self doesn’t stop her from being the most expressive in the book, and to love even in the most clandestine yet modest way. Slowly as she grows up, she starts falling in love with the Kulkarni mansion more and more, where she has kept going as part of a house help alongside her mother. Little did she know that the mansion had an important role in the later part of her life that not even the Belgaum village, its natives and not even the Kulkarni’s and the servants had expected. Will she get the acceptance too? That’s something for you to find out.
Next, we see Girish aka Dada in the novel as the most intriguing character of the novel. I simply got haunted by his silence and composed gestures throughout the narration, but slowly, with the arrival of some elements in the form of people in his life, he starts to metamorphose and his real yet quiet self is revealed. Because of a disturbing past, he keeps brooding in a void that he has created for himself. Yet, I felt he is the strongest and intense character I have come across, even in his measured gestures and composed self. His demeanour asks for sympathy and the author has used the right amount of it through her superlative narration.
And the last and the most important character of the novel is Kashi. She is the reason the story ends with a sudden joy in the silent world of Belgaum and particularly the Kulkarni mansion. She is that common thread between all the main characters whose true hidden human side can be seen in a much better way. The silence brooding in Girish, Mukta and another important character, Narmada gets more and more untangled and gets revealed because of Kashi. The interesting part is that the story and the three main characters have been depicted in three different segments but they are all connected with each other.
There is also a depiction of a practice that gives the story of how it has been portrayed and how it affects all of their lives. It couldn’t have been written in any other way I suppose, and that’s what makes it more soothing and gives the reason to keep on reading. Honestly, the world created by the author is at a slow pace in the book and asks the same to be consumed slowly with patience as it’s a contemporary drama that you would be soaking yourself into.
My verdict is that the author’s narrating capacity is above excellence and one really cannot expect that a world full of silence could be actually so loud and haunting. The characters will stay with you long, this I can assure you. Truly recommended, one must give this book a read and feel how a huge world silence in itself can be!
Dr. Aparna Salvi Nagda is a consulting homeopath by profession and writer by passion. She earns her bread and butter through medical practice in Mumbai. Her short stories have won a place in around ten anthologies, while her blogs have found a home on websites like Mompresso, Youth Ki Awaz, The She Saga, WomensWeb and also the The Times Of India Readers blog.
The Labyrinth Of Silence is her first full-length novel published by Vishwakarma Publications. Previously, she has self-published a novella called Not So Grave on Kindle and also has been a part of a short story collection La Javvaab Pizza published by Vishwakarma Publications.
Apart from writing and treating patients, she is also a biology teacher and co-runs Genius Academy, a coaching class in Dombivali.
Aparna spends her free time volunteering for Goonj Foundation.
She wishes to write till the last drop of ink in her pen and her last breath.
Review by Monalisa Joshi, Founder, Director & Chief Editor of Chrysanthemum Chronicles.
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