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by Venkataramanan Balaji
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Current price ₹163.00
Original price ₹250.00
Original price ₹250.00
Original price ₹250.00
(-35%)
₹163.00
Current price ₹163.00

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Book cover type: Paperback
  • ISBN13: 9780143478331
  • Binding: Paperback
  • Subject: N/A
  • Publisher: PRH India Local Print
  • Publisher Imprint: Duckbill
  • Publication Date:
  • Pages: 40
  • Original Price: INR 250.0
  • Language: English
  • Edition: N/A
  • Item Weight: 41 grams
  • BISAC Subject(s): Action & Adventure / General

*One of the Guardians top 10 debuts to watch out for in 2026*


A dazzlingly original new voice in literary fiction for fans of Ali Smith, Mohsin Hamid and Elif Shafak

The Renovation is a heart-breaking portrait of one family caught in the tides of history, grappling with grief, exile, politics and the painful absurdity of love

Dilara s father is disappearing.

He has dementia and the disease steals a little more of him each day. Dilara has persuaded him to move in with her, hiring builders to adapt her apartment in preparation, but when the renovation is complete she discovers a big problem. Instead of a new bathroom, the builders have installed a Turkish prison cell.

At first she is outraged. There has surely been some mistake. Dilara s family are exiles they left Turkey many years ago and have never been back. The last thing she wants is a piece of her estranged homeland appearing uninvited in her new home.

But as the weeks pass, her indignation gives way to curiosity. Beyond the cell door, she glimpses Turkish guards going about their work. Through the cell walls, she hears Turkish prisoners murmuring, rustling, crying out in their sleep. And in the strange, impossible air of the cell itself, she smells the sesame scent of freshly baked simit, she tastes the fine dust of the Anatolian steppe on her tongue.

Even as she struggles to care for her father, to keep the family finances afloat and stop the wheels coming off her marriage, Dilara is drawn back again and again to the mysterious prison cell, and through it to a city that once belonged to her to the salt wind off the Marmara, the sky full of gulls and domes and minarets back to Istanbul.

Like most middle-class boys, Balaji Venkataramanan completed his engineering, joined the IT bandwagon, went onsite and started paying EMIs. Then the bubble burst and Flat-track Bullies got published. A native of Chennai, he's mighty proud that he comes from the land of idli-sambar, Rajinikanth and the Chennai Super Kings.

Tanvi Bhat is a children’s book illustrator and author of over thirty titles with leading publishers including Pratham Books, Duckbill and Penguin Random House, Scholastic, Tulika Books, and Art1st, among others. Her picture book Jamini Roy’s Unbroken Lines (Art1st) was selected for the prestigious Parag Honour Book List, which recognizes outstanding children’s literature in India. Her picture book Ed Finds A Home by Alia Bhatt found a place on Amazon’s bestseller list.

Working primarily in watercolours and gouache, Tanvi brings to life vibrant worlds and endearing characters that capture the magic of everyday life. Her illustrations are celebrated for their warmth and whimsy, inviting young readers to pause, wonder and imagine.

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