The House on East Canal Road

Generations of an Indian family confront personal and political challenges.

In this historical novel, Raman, whose last book was Moments in Transition(2018), follows the Chand family from 1905, when their hometown of Dehradun, along with the rest of India, is firmly under British control, through 1947, when Partition and independence bring a new era to the country. Kishan Chand Das, proprietor of a successful engineering firm, is optimistic in the book’s opening pages, but when his wife dies giving birth to their fourth son, he spirals into depression. With help from his friend and a spiritual retreat, Kishan gets back on track, and he also develops a new commitment to the independence movement. Kishan marries his son Ishaan to Leela, the infant daughter of his best friend. A decade later, the orphaned Leela moves into the Chand house in Dehradun, where she becomes a crucial member of the family. Over the following decades, Ishaan and Leela deal with marital problems, financial struggles, and political turmoil, and their daughter Anita becomes the third generation of the Chand family to drive the book’s story. Raman has an eye for historical detail, like Kishan’s assessment of a train car (“clean symmetrical lines, padded leather seats, side panels adorned with windows...the coach, designed and built by the American Car & Foundry Company, had been his procurement”), and a solid grasp of the real history that shapes the lives of the fictional characters. The writing is strong, and Raman does an excellent job of creating an intimate portrait of a wealthy family that is committed to independence while also financially reliant on the British. The pacing, however, is uneven, though the rushed feeling of some portions is understandable given the book’s sweeping timeline. The ending is somewhat abrupt, and readers may desire a more satisfying resolution to Anita’s storyline. Still, the thoughtful exploration of the experience of colonialism makes the story a rewarding read overall.

An evocative, well-imagined portrayal of late-colonial India through one family’s eyes.