Those Days (Orignal title: সেই সময় ) : Sunil Gangopadhyay

BOOK REVIEW: by Indraneel Das Adhikari

My Review

Shei Somoy (Those Days) is a landmark historical novel by Sunil Gangopadhyay in which he paints a lively and vivid picture of the city of Kolkata in particular and Bengal in general in the period between 1840 and 1870.
In contrast to the period described in his other famous historical novel set in British India, the period under focus here is one of predominantly darkness – of ignorance, of religious dogmatism, of a society, overflowing with vice and steeped in slumber. However, there are flickers of light in the form of the emergence of a realization in a few. And it is these few – including social reformers, carriers of a new religious idea and exponents of the literature of a language in its infancy, that the novel gains a refreshing dazzle in the otherwise despairing atmosphere. Sunil Gangopadhyay’s astounding style is evident though in both darkness and light.
Shei Somoy is a must-read if you are fond of historical novels or wish to acquaint yourself with the history of the city of Kolkata while enjoying a tight plot novel simultaneously.