Protagonists: Aruna, the highly emotional and seemingly unstable
researcher; Ejjaz/Jazz, the loving,easy-going writer; Hari Hasan, the
self-involved poet & father to Jazz.
Spanning across London, Singapore
and Kuala Lumpur; Half Life is a story of a rather eccentric woman who walks
out on her husband and home to go to her previous life in Singapore in search
for her lost identity.
Aruna comes across an unbalanced,
moody alcoholic who leads a perfectly balanced life with her doctor husband in
London. Few lines from a Bengali poet (Hari Hasan) books compels her to fly
back to Singapore where she has unresolved issues with her ex-boyfriend and
childhood friend Jazz.
Chapters written from each
characters perspective present their viewpoint beautifully. Roopa Farooki has
skillfully crafted each character be it the drug-addict bipolar Aruna or Hasan
wrapped in a time warp or Jazz with his own quest for finding himself. The book
is so addictive that it makes you want to finish it without keeping it down.
The author has beautifully described the conflicts faced in the life and the
demons that reside within us. One of the lines from the book- "...running away really is the easy part; it is coming home
that is hard" would probably never leave your mind. One of
the most impactful yet free-flowing writing I have ever come across.
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