The Conch Bearer by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Anand’s family lived a happily middle-class life until his father disappeared and his sister became mute with shock after witnessing a violent death. Now he, his mother and his sister live in poverty in Kolkata, and Anand has had to drop out of school and take a job with a mean stall owner to make ends meet. But then he gives his last food to an old man, and along with a street girl, he’s drawn into a war between a secret brotherhood and an their supernatural enemy.
The book follows the Heroic Boy’s Quest Template as closely as it possibly can, but brings modern India* and mythology to life very well. It’s painfully predictable for an adult used to quest stories, but is probably just the thing for kids.
That said, despite the criticism of predictability, which is primarily based on my being over twice the target age, my only real criticism is the ending, which certainly isn’t predictable, but also makes no sense.
In the end, Anand, unsurprisingly, is going to join the brotherhood, but he has to choose between the brotherhood and his family, with his father returned and his sister speaking again, who will forget he ever existed if he stays. I assumed that Anand would either go home, or at least say goodbye to his family, who already knew he disappeared on a supposedly supernatural quest. But no! Without bothering to consult the people whose brains would be altered, Anand chooses to have his family forget he ever existed.
Mind altering means love! And a good source of adolescent angst?
But beyond that, does that mean that everyone else he ever met forgot he existed, or just his family? If it’s only his family, then they’ll be in for a surprise when people start asking about the kid they didn’t know they had, and if the brotherhood can alter legal records and the memory of everyone who ever met them, then I have to wonder why they haven’t managed to save the world from all evil by breakfast.
This may be why adults should be careful of what children’s fiction they read?
*According to the author bio, Divakaruni lives in Houston, or did in 2003, at least. If the Texan kids she knows are anything at all like the Texan kids I knew 20 years ago (or know now), then just the setting could make it the most original thing they’ve ever read.