Anya's Lyric - Book Review

Anya’s Lyric
By Nikhil Kumar
Review By Ila Garg

Anya’s Lyric, a novel by Nikhil Kumar, is published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. The cover shows a shadow of a girl with a halo of light in the backdrop. Her hair is spread high representing the power of her thoughts and imagination. It totally intrigued me to flip through the pages quickly.

Nikhil Kumar is an advertising professional living in Bangalore, with his wife Mansi Pal and has been blogging for about 12 years. He writes primarily on Mirror Cracked and contributes to a travel blog called ‘Chai Around The World’, which he maintains with his wife. Nikhil has written four books so far.

The blurb reads as, “I was born on the 29th of February. It was perhaps fitting that I was born on a date that follows a specific albeit unnatural routine. I was the child of a divergent day, a day that shattered the carefully planned routines of my parents, and was born because of one man’s inability to read. I was named after a word that meant “different” in my language. My name is Anya, and this is my story.”

About the book:
A story of one girl's courage in the face of our society's worst offences. Anya's Lyric is the critically acclaimed new book by Nikhil Kumar, that tracks the journey of a young girl's self-discovery and the roads that lead her from a turbulent childhood to peace. We see the world through Anya's eyes - a girl who suffers from a learning disability - and discover places, incidents, and people through her. A girl born on an unlikely day to an unlikely couple, Anya stumbles through her chaotic life that gets undone at every step because of her inability to communicate what she wants to say. Follow her journey of courage, self-discovery, and empowerment as she gradually finds the hidden path to peace.

The book opens with the line—“I was born because of one man’s inability to read.” What could have been a better opening line for such a wonderful book that is unique in its concept and characterisation. Yes, it has an array of characters which have no name in the entire book. Anya is the only one whose name is revealed by the author.

So Anya is a differently-abled person and yet her character is powerful and impactful. A woman is left by her lover, and a chain of events that follow it, lead to Anya’s birth. The other characters that the author talks about are identified by their descriptions like a man with one hand or a woman with a mole on her left cheek. The author builds up enough suspense which keep compelling the reader to go on at a faster pace to reach the climax. A number of short stories keep on moving parallel only to connect as one as we move further. What is special about these unlinked stories is that each one of them carry a part of Anya. As she goes on exploring the world which is equivalent to her home, she bumps into a number of people who all form a part of her lyrics.

Is Anya not in each one of us as we lay whimpering in pain when we are attacked, unable to retaliate or we consider ourselves weak? For me, Anya became our society and each character was someone I knew or may be, to some extent, a part of me.

The descriptions in the book are quite realistic and therefore the readers will feel very much connected to the events. The language is simple and easy to comprehend. Nowhere will a reader feel any disconnect. It’s so well-written that once you pick up, you cannot keep it down without finishing it off. I found it quite engaging. The subject is tackled beautifully by the skillful author.

Who is Anya, is she just a girl-next-door or a fragmented version of the society, how our society is morally degrading daily, how cases of rapes and murders are on the high and affect Anya are some of the many reasons why you will keep turning the pages to find out what happens in Anya’s Lyric.

Further, this 180-page book is good enough to expose the double standards of society we live in, how our silence is often taken as weakness. It’s a compelling book that gives you enough to reflect on.

Ratings: 4/5 

Buying Link: Amazon 

This (Unbiased) book review is a part of "The Readers Cosmos Book Review Program". To get free books log on to thereaderscosmos.blogspot.com. Thanks Nimi Vashi for giving me the opportunity to read such a nice book!