The Association of Small Bombs

Last updated
The Association of Small Bombs
The Association of Small Bombs.jpg
First edition
Author Karan Mahajan
Publisher Viking Press
Publication date
2016
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Paperback)
Pages288 pages
ISBN 978-0-525-42963-0

The Association of Small Bombs is a 2016 novel by Indian-American author and novelist Karan Mahajan. [1] The novel is Mahajan's second, after 2012's Family Planning, and was first published in 2016 by Viking Press. [2] The novel was named a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction. It was met with positive reviews. [3] [4] [5] [6]

The novel opens with a bombing in a New Delhi marketplace in 1996 and explores the resultant trauma caused by the attack, examining it from the perspective of the victims, their families, and the perpetrators. [7]

Plot

The novel opens with the detonation of a bomb by a Kashmiri man, Shockie. The bomb kills thirteen and injures a further thirty. The remainder of the novel alternates between the perspective of Shockie, those who were injured, and those who lost family in the explosion.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurt Vonnegut</span> American author (1922–2007)

Kurt Vonnegut was an American author known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels. His published work includes fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and five nonfiction works over fifty-plus years; further works have been published since his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2002 Bali bombings</span> Terrorist attacks in Indonesia

A series of bombings occurred on 12 October 2002, in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. The attacks killed 202 people and a further 209 people were injured. General Da'i Bachtiar, the Indonesian Chief of Police at the time, said that the bombings was the "Worst act of terror in Indonesia's history".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Improvised explosive device</span> Unconventionally produced bomb

An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mechanism. IEDs are commonly used as roadside bombs, or homemade bombs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zadie Smith</span> British writer (born 1975)

Zadie Smith is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, White Teeth (2000), immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She became a tenured professor in the Creative Writing faculty of New York University in September 2010.

<i>The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time</i> 2003 mystery novel by Mark Haddon

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a 2003 mystery novel by British writer Mark Haddon. Its title refers to an observation by the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in the 1892 short story "The Adventure of Silver Blaze". Haddon and The Curious Incident won the Whitbread Book Awards for Best Novel and Book of the Year, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. Unusually, it was published simultaneously in separate editions for adults and children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Patchett</span> American novelist and memoirist (born 1963)

Ann Patchett is an American author. She received the 2002 PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction in the same year, for her novel Bel Canto. Patchett's other novels include The Patron Saint of Liars (1992), Taft (1994), The Magician's Assistant (1997), Run (2007), State of Wonder (2011), Commonwealth (2016), The Dutch House (2019), and Tom Lake (2023). The Dutch House was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Magee (Irish republican)</span> Provisional Irish Republican Army member (born 1951)

Patrick Joseph Magee is an Irish former militant. He was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer who is best known for planting a bomb in the Brighton Grand Hotel targeting Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her Cabinet, which killed five people. He is often referred to as 'the Brighton bomber'.

A war novel or military fiction is a novel about war. It is a novel in which the primary action takes place on a battlefield, or in a civilian setting, where the characters are preoccupied with the preparations for, suffering the effects of, or recovering from war. Many war novels are historical novels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurdistan Freedom Hawks</span> Kurdish nationalist militant group in Turkey

The Kurdistan Freedom Hawks or TAK, is a Kurdish nationalist militant group in Turkey seeking an independent Kurdish state in Turkish Kurdistan. The group also opposes the Turkish government's policies towards Kurds in Turkey. It has been designated as a terrorist organization by the US, UK and Australian governments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karan Mahajan</span> American novelist

Karan Mahajan is an Indian-American novelist, essayist, and critic. His second novel, The Association of Small Bombs, was a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction. He has contributed writing to The Believer, The Daily Beast, the San Francisco Chronicle, Granta, and The New Yorker. In 2017, he was named one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists.

Complete Review is a literary website founded in March 1999. It is best known for reviews of novels in English translation, in particular drawing attention to otherwise neglected contemporary works from around the world, but there are also reviews of classics, non-fiction, drama and poetry. As of March 2009, on its tenth anniversary, there were a total of 2251 works under review, averaging over 250 new reviews added per year. A blog, Literary Saloon, was added in August 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ujjwal Nikam</span> Indian special public prosecutor

Ujjwal Nikam is an Indian special public prosecutor who has worked on prominent murder and terrorism cases. He helped prosecute suspects in the 1993 Bombay bombings, the Gulshan Kumar murder case, the Pramod Mahajan murder case, and the 2008 Mumbai attacks. He was also the special public prosecutor in the 2013 Mumbai gang rape case, 2016 Kopardi rape and murder case. Ujjwal Nikam argued on behalf of the state during the 26/11 Mumbai attack trial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesmyn Ward</span> American writer

Jesmyn Ward is an American novelist and a professor of English at Tulane University, where she holds the Andrew W. Mellon Professorship in the Humanities. She won the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction for her second novel Salvage the Bones and won the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction for her novel Sing, Unburied, Sing. She also received a 2012 Alex Award for the story about familial love and community in facing Hurricane Katrina. She is the only woman and only African American to win the National Book Award for Fiction twice. All of Ward's first three novels are set in the fictitious Mississippi town of Bois Sauvage. In her fourth novel, Let Us Descend, the main character Annis, perhaps inhabits an earlier Bois Sauvage when she is taken shackled from the Carolina coast and put to work on a Mississippi sugar plantation near New Orleans.

<i>Life After Life</i> (novel) Novel by Kate Atkinson

Life After Life is a 2013 novel by Kate Atkinson. It is the first of two novels about the Todd family. The second, A God in Ruins, was published in 2015. Life After Life garnered acclaim from critics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chigozie Obioma</span> Nigerian writer (born 1986)

Chigozie Obioma is a Nigerian writer who wrote the novels The Fishermen (2015) and An Orchestra of Minorities (2019), both of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize in their respective years of publication. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages. His third novel, The Road to the Country, was published in 2024, and was described by The Guardian as 'giving voice to the victims of the Nigerian civil war'.

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2016.

<i>The Underground Railroad</i> (novel) 2016 novel by Colson Whitehead

The Underground Railroad is a historical fiction novel by American author Colson Whitehead, published by Doubleday in 2016. The alternate history novel tells the story of Cora, a slave in the Antebellum South during the 19th century, who makes a bid for freedom from her Georgia plantation by following the Underground Railroad, which the novel depicts as a rail transport system with safe houses and secret routes. The book was a critical and commercial success, hitting the bestseller lists and winning several literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Award for Fiction, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the 2017 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. A TV miniseries adaptation, written and directed by Barry Jenkins, was released in May 2021.

Terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2017 include, in chronological order:

Drew Nellins Smith is an American writer. In 2016 Smith published the novel Arcade.

The Young Lions Fiction Award is an annual US literary prize of $10,000, awarded to a writer who is 35 years old or younger for a novel or collection of short stories. The award was established in 2001 by Ethan Hawke, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, Rick Moody, Hannah McFarland, and the New York Public Library. Each year, five young fiction writers are selected as finalists by a reading committee of Young Lions members, writers, editors, and librarians. A panel of judges selects the winner.

References

  1. Fallon, Claire (18 March 2016). "The Bottom Line: 'The Association of Small Bombs' By Karan Mahajan". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  2. Shetty, Sharan (2016-04-06). "After the Blast". Slate. ISSN   1091-2339 . Retrieved 2016-06-12.
  3. Maazel, Fiona (15 March 2016). "'The Association of Small Bombs,' by Karan Mahajan". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  4. Schwartz, Alexandra (4 April 2016). "Blast Radius". The New Yorker. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  5. Ruiz-Camacho, Antonio (22 March 2016). "I Want Complete Freedom When I Write". The Millions. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  6. "Book Marks reviews of The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan". Book Marks. Retrieved June 13, 2023.
  7. Sacks, Sam (18 March 2016). "Fiction Chronicle: A Typical Bomb". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 4 April 2016.