About the Book:
Title: Radius 200Author: Veena Nagpal
Publisher: EEP (Enviroment Education Promoters)
Language: English
No. of pages: 344
Year of Publication: 2017
ISBN: 9788190590334
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What if a nuclear powered neighboring nation was to ‘steal’ an entire river from under our eyes?
What if a top-ranking Indian General was to take a unilateral decision to strike back, thereby triggering a cataclysmic reaction?
What if, in the aftermath of the nuclear attack, India was left with a devastated Exclusion Zone, 200 kilometers in radius?
And what if your love was stranded inside the Exclusion Zone…
Veena Nagpal was ten when she was caught reading in the bathroom late into the night. Her mother banned her from reading ‘story books’ for a whole month. She decided if she couldn’t read, she’d write her own stories. That night in a naval apartment in the then city of Bombay, Veena Nagpal’s passion for writing was born.
My Views:
To begin with, the cover of the book is the kind that makes you pick up the book in first place, yet it does not do much justice to the story.
As the title says it is 'The story of a fragile love trapped in the crossfire between two nuclear nations warring over scarce water resources'; frankly speaking, I was expecting a lot more from the book. It does not mean that I am disappointed. It was a good book to read.
It's a story about Kyra, and her character description is balanced but I would have loved to know about the male protagonists - Arjun and Om. There are some characters in the book that could have been detailed out as well.
There's detailed description about nuclear explosion and its after-effects. The justification for the title 'Radius 200' can be found in the initial pages of the book.
The story seems fast-paced in the beginning and a lot happens in just a few pages, including sex between two protagonists. Kyra and Arjun (who has a wife and two kids); the way it has been written disappointed me a little. It could have had some depth that would have justified why the two chose to have sex. The rest of the story is well-paced and well written. It is a smooth read.
The language is simple and easy to understand.
Extra points to the author for the research and statistical information included in the book.
"The river Tsangpo starts its life near Mount Kailash, meanders through the Himalayas and eventually re-appears out of the foothills in northern Assam, as the Brahmaputra. Up until the early 1900s, no one had thought of the two as being the same river. The reason was that the Tsangpo disappears from the Tibetan plains, into the mountainous dense jungle of the Tsangpo Gorge at about 10,000 ft above sea level, whereas the Brahmaputra emerges out of the Assam foothills, on to the plains of India at about 500 ft above sea level. The distance between these two places is only around 200 miles – which translates into a drop of over 3,000 meters over a distance of 200 miles. Explorers of the time thought that was incredible, but were later forced to accept the possibility, when some illiterate locals talked of a giant waterfall. In 1911 the waterfall was discovered at Pemakoe in Motuo."
I recommend this book to readers who do not limit their choice to specific genres. If you look at this book only as a love story, you will be disappointed. If you pick up the book after seeing the cover, read the blurb; then you will probably take it home to read (or download) and will not regret buying it if you read with an open mind.
