There's Gunpowder in the Air

It's the seventies. The Naxalbari movement is gathering strength in Bengal. Young men and women have left their homes, picked up arms to free land from the clutches of feudal landlords and the state, and return them to oppressed landless farmers. They are being arrested en masse and thrown into high-security jails. In one such prison, five Naxals are meticulously planning a jailbreak. They must free themselves if the revolution is to continue. But petty thief Bhagoban, much too happy to serve frequent terms for free food and shelter, has been planted by Jailor Bireshwar Mukherjee among them as a mole. Only, Bhagoban seems to be warming up to them... There's Gunpowder In the Air holds stories within each story, and intrigues big and small. At once dark and comic, it is a searing investigation into what deprivation and isolation can do to human idealism. This deft translation by Arunava Sinha brings to English readers for the first time ever a novel by Manoranjan Byapari, perhaps the most refreshing voice to emerge from Bengal in recent times.