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Pia Ghosh-Roy’s Debut Novel Explores Trauma Across Three Generations
Pia Ghosh-Roy’s novel is about a family living in an old mansion in Calcutta.
It follows a grandmother, her daughter and her granddaughter.
The grandmother, Niyoti, is powerful and makes many rules for the family.
Her daughter Ira gives up singing because Niyoti disapproves of it.
The granddaughter Mishu leaves for New York but returns when Niyoti becomes ill.
The story also includes a funny narrator who is dead and speaks from the afterlife.
The family slowly discovers painful secrets from the past.
The reviewer thinks the book is caring and memorable, even though some parts are repetitive and slow.
Pia Ghosh-Roy’s debut novel follows three generations of women in a 1940s Art Deco mansion in Calcutta.
The story is told through multiple narrators, including the dead and divided figure Opor/Neech.
Niyoti Chatterjee dominates her family through strict rules, while her daughter Ira gives up classical singing after marriage.
Mishu returns from New York when Niyoti falls into a coma, confronting family grievances and buried secrets.
The review praises the novel’s structure, wit and compassion but criticizes repetitive passages, uneven pacing and an emotionally distant romance.
- Who
- Author Pia Ghosh-Roy and the three generations of women at the center of her novel, including Niyoti, Ira and Mishu.
- What
- A review of And I Am the Arrow, a multigenerational novel involving family control, trauma, secrets and an unusual afterlife narrator.
- Where
- Primarily a 1940s Art Deco mansion in Calcutta, with part of the story involving New York and Howrah Station.
- When
- The family story spans several decades, beginning in the 1930s and including a 1940s setting; no publication date for the review is given.
- Why
- The novel explores how social expectations, family authority and painful choices shape unfulfilled lives across generations.
Key facts
- Book
- And I Am the Arrow
- Author
- Pia Ghosh-Roy
- Publisher
- Pan Macmillan India
- Primary setting
- A 1940s Art Deco mansion in Calcutta
- Central family
- Three generations of women led by Niyoti Chatterjee
- Narrative style
- Multiple viewpoints, including a narrator speaking from the afterlife
- Review assessment
- A graceful and memorable debut with minor flaws in repetition, pacing and emotional distance
Quotes
Niyoti Chatterjee
Mishu’s imperious grandmother and the family matriarch.
“We were much better off with the British”
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“We am dead but We am not a ghost.”
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Sources
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