Book Review: The Saga of Shom and Raima by Tapan Ghosh

This is my second Tapan Ghosh book. A year ago I had the opportunity to explore the Anglo-Indian culture with his book ‘An Anglo-Indian in Love’. What I exquisitely like about this author is that he writes with a fervent passion the stories of ordinary with something extraordinaire. Even this novel that sounds like a pure romance has elements of horror and nationalism and one big global issue: terrorism.

The book is romantic with strange themes that finally blend in the essence of pure love. The story features Suman Bhatia aka Shom and Raima. Shom is middle aged, tied with hedonistic duties of the world. Well, when he stumbles across Raima on FB, they begin chatting and much more. Shom is double the age of Raima. The world doesn’t look up to them as promising lovers. But being in love is a pure and one of the most romantic feelings in itself.

As a reader, I felt their love story took time to get fully hatched. The couple hangs around, chat, meet, and so on. The building of love part is perfectly captured between these two lovers. For most of the time, the story remains same or in snatches repetitive. The crux of the story begins unfurling with the later part of the novel. There is more than appears with the façade of storyline. There is terror angle involved. When Raima is kidnapped by Saif, one of the terrorists, the book entirely takes a new plunge. Another interesting point is the unveiling past life secrets and love with regard to Shom and Raima. Were they lovers since their past lives? If yes… how they are meeting again in this birth. Does love seek any sacrifice? A bundle of questions begin surrounding as you keep delving deep into the book. The story is offbeat yet riveting to read and feel.

Tapan’s authoring skills are simple yet prosaic in manner. Initially he has put a lot of Hindi and Bangla prose to capture the rawness in a relationship. Even other auxiliary characters are good and acted as per the circumstances. For instance Cindy and Dilip and their connection to Shom and Raima. Indeed the story reads like a love saga. The story sounds a bit filmy but it is hot on serving entertainment quotient. I believe this book can be converted into a major motion film. My only concern is its length; otherwise, the book is a different romance book for its genre. I highly recommend this book for veteran romance lovers and also new ones can pick it up anytime.

Buy from Amazon/Kindle.

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