PRELUDE TO A RIOT

Two families in a small plantation town speak in turn, and the distance between them widens page by page. Prelude to a Riot is told through monologues, letting teachers, children, landowners and labourers make their own case without an authorial verdict. The town's economy, its schools and its dinner tables carry the pressure that builds across the novel. Annie Zaidi's book won the Tata Literature Live! Book of the Year for Fiction in 2020 and was shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature. It is short, and deliberately left unresolved. Where the value lies: • A short novel built from individual voices and monologues • Two families of different religious backgrounds at its centre • Winner of the Tata Literature Live! Book of the Year, Fiction, 2020 • Shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature For readers of contemporary Indian literary fiction and for discussion groups, available from Boipoka.