The City Son, Samrat Upadhyay
The City Son, Samrat Upadhyay
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The City Son

Author: Samrat Upadhyay

Narrator: Priya Ayyar

Unabridged: 5 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/17/2014

Synopsis

Acclaimed and award-winning author Samrat Upadhyay—the first Nepali-born fiction writer writing in English to be published in the West—has crafted a spare, understated work examining a taboo subject: a scorned wife's obsession with her husband's illegitimate son. When Didi discovers that her husband, the Masterji, has been hiding his beautiful lover and their young son Tarun in a nearby city, she takes the Masterji back into her grasp and expels his second family. Tarun's mother, heartsick and devastated, slowly begins to lose her mind, and Tarun turns to Didi for the mothering he longs for. But as Tarun gets older, Didi's domination of the boy turns from the emotional to the physical, and the damages she inflicts spiral outward, threatening to destroy Tarun's one chance at true happiness. Potent, disturbing, and gorgeously stark in its execution, The City Son is a novel not soon forgotten.

About Samrat Upadhyay

Samrat Upadhyay was born and raised in Nepal. He is the author of Arresting God in Kathmandu, a Whiting Award winner; The Royal Ghosts; The Guru of Love, a New York Times Notable Book and a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year; and Buddha’s Orphans. He has written for the New York Times and has appeared on BBC Radio and National Public Radio. Upadhyay teaches in the creative writing program at Indiana University.

About Priya Ayyar

Priya Ayyar is an audiobook narrator, actor, and writer with a BFA and MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her acting credits for television and film include Law & Order: Criminal Intent, All My Children, and the documentary The Children of War. She has appeared on stage in War of the Unheard, Aminta, and The Road Home, and she has written and performed in the plays Karmic Fusion and Losing Remote Control.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Elsa Rajan on February 11, 2021

Gross! I read the entire book just because I felt that as long as I didn't finish it, Tarun would be trapped between the pages and may continue to be sexually abused by his stepmother. I freed him. ~~Spoiler alert~~ The City Son is a story of sexual abuse within a family. In this case, the perpetrator......more

Goodreads review by Bonnie on November 29, 2014

The City Son is a hard-hitting book, one that punches the reader right between the eyes, and then does it again. Its content matter is horrific but the writer knows what he is talking about as he describes a young boy groomed to be sexually abused. Didi and her two sons live in the country. Her husba......more

Goodreads review by Nikita on September 22, 2019

I finished reading 'The City Son' in one night, feverishly turning page after page, trying not to let my eyes wander towards the end in anticipation, all the while with my heart in my hand. The story opens with a village woman, who is called 'Didi' by everyone, discovering that her husband (who every......more

Goodreads review by Mayush on October 17, 2018

what did I just read? Like what is this? eventhough the plot is so emotionally disturbing yet I can’t explain how simple and good this book is. It had the capability to hold the readers heart. This is is mindblown book. Author “hands down” I like how the author has kept the innocence of Tarun alive.......more

Goodreads review by Athira on May 19, 2014

Didi was going through her sons' old clothes when some stranger woman stopped by to tell her that her husband (called Masterji through the entire book because he tutors students) has been cheating on her, and now has another wife and son living in the city. This is news to Didi but it doesn't seem t......more

Quotes

“Author Upadhyay tells his story with simple and direct prose…The multicharacter narration adds dramatic depth.” Publishers Weekly

“Examines the vengeance of a truly evil woman scorned…Not for the faint of heart.” Booklist

“Upadhyay is among the smoothest and most noiseless of contemporary writers.” Los Angeles Times, praise for the author

“Priya Ayyar delivers a vivid and lively narration of personal entanglements. She deftly manages both the narrative voice, which has a neutral English accent, and the subcontinental accent that conveys the dialogue and thoughts of the Nepalese characters. In bringing to life the competition between women for scarce resources in the developing world, she dramatizes the tension at the core of the story. The listener keenly feels the stress of the two female characters who fight for the same man’s attention and for his financial support of their children, two legitimate, one not. The story is not for the faint of heart as it exposes the worst that can come from human desperation. Ayyar’s pitch, tone, and pace keep listeners invested in the characters to the bitter end.” AudioFile

Awards

  • PEN Literary Award
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