Chronicle of a Corpse Bearer

Phiroze Elchidana grows up in rooms attached to a Bombay fire temple, the son of a respected Parsi priest, and is thought slow as a child. He falls for Sepideh, the daughter of a khandhia, one of the corpse bearers who carry the Parsi dead to the Towers of Silence and are kept apart for their contact with them. Marrying her costs him his family’s standing, and he becomes a khandhia himself, living in the compound around the Towers. Sepideh dies a few years into the marriage, and Phiroze looks back on their brief life together. As the independence movement gathers pace, he also leads his fellow corpse bearers in a strike for better pay and conditions against the wealthy community they serve.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

247 pages in the original

Genres

Love, Historical (assigned by AI)

Set in

India

First published

2012 by Aleph Book Company

Author's age

56 when first published

ISBN

9788192328058 (Aleph Book Company, India)

9789382277354 (Aleph Book Company, India)

More

Wikidata