Stealing Green Mangoes, Sunil Dutta
Stealing Green Mangoes, Sunil Dutta
List: $23.99 | Sale: $16.79
Club: $11.99

Stealing Green Mangoes
Two Brothers, Two Fates, One Indian Childhood

Author: Sunil Dutta

Narrator: Sunil Malhotra

Unabridged: 9 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/01/2019


Synopsis

A memoir—written in the wake of a cancer diagnosis—that zeroes in on the crux between two brothers: one who became an LAPD officer, and the other a terrorist.Sunil Dutta is a twenty-year veteran of the LAPD. Before that, he was a biologist at the University of California and a translator of classic Indian poetry. Before that, he was a destitute refugee, one of so many uprooted by the genocidal violence surrounding the Partition of India. Back then, he had a brother. Back then, they were children together, chasing whatever fun and solace they could find in impossible conditions. Sunil looked up to Raju. He admired his strength, his character.Raju took a different path. He was arrested, he fled the law, he became a fugitive. He became a terrorist. Then he became a father—and then a murderer.After being diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer later in life, Sunil urgently wanted to understand what choices had led he and his brother down such radically different paths. In Stealing Green Mangoes, Dutta takes us from his family home in Rajasthan to America, to France, to the streets of southeastern Los Angeles, homing in on the questions that tore him and Raju apart: Can you outgrow the madness that made you? Can you make peace with the ghosts of your past?A memoir with sweeping, spiritual ambitions, Stealing Green Mangoes tells the story of a man who pushed back against the forces that captured his own brother and built a compassionate, meaningful life in a broken world.

About Sunil Dutta

Sunil Dutta was a police sergeant with the Los Angeles Police Department, and was the author of the books Freedom, Partition, and Terrorism; Bloodlines; and Lightning Should Have Fallen on Ghalib. He was also a professor of homeland security and a recognized expert in terrorism issues. Prior to joining the LAPD, Dutta was a scientist with a specialization in biochemistry.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jill

Sunil Dutta's book, "Stealing Green Mangoes: Two Brothers, Two Fates, One Indian Childhood", is essentially the memoir of a dying man. Dutta died of lung cancer right after the book's completion in the summer of 2019. He left behind a wife, a mother, and a brother. It is the brother who is referred......more

Goodreads review by Lisa

This book would have benefited from another 100-170 pages, as he says basically nothing about his 'true love' or her perspective on his brother. The story is told in a very choppy way as well. I would have appreciated more details.......more

Sunil Dutta’s ‘Stealing Green Mangoes’ offers a unique glimpse into the immigrant experience and his journey from academia to becoming an LAPD officer. His portrayal of Indian culture and his struggles to secure a visa add depth to the narrative, leaving me wanting more of this rich cultural explora......more

It's always difficult to review a memoir because it can feel as though you are making a judgment about someone's life and life choices. That's not the case here because Dutta has written a fascinating book about not only his life but that of his brother Raju. Could this be a case of nature versus nu......more

This was a wonderful story to read. The author details his life beginning with his childhood in India. I found his style of writing to be easy and the flow of his storytelling kept me turning the pages to find out what was happening next. I appreciated his telling of his internal dialogue to figure......more