Winner, IP Picks 09 Best Fiction Award
Part comedy, part tragedy, part henna-drawn thriller peppered with romance and intrigue, A Beginner’s Guide to Dying in India is a spiritual journey across the continents of the soul.
Commencing in Australia and traversing toward the climactic scene in the snowy mountains of Northern India, this novel crosses exotic external and internal terrains with humour, sharp wit and a resonance that expands with each chapter.
While confronted with mounting grief and loss in Australia, Levi is suddenly called to India by his brother and delves, though somewhat reluctantly, into the shifting sands of his own spirituality. In fulfilling his dying brother’s wishes, Levi embarks on a path intersecting with adventure, new found friends, a treasure trove of riches (and not just the material kind
IP (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd) –
So your house burns down, your gff cuts sick and joins a cult, and you lose your job. What do you do? You could make like Harmony Korine when his house burnt down and move to Peru to hunt magical fish. You could exact revenge. You could become a ‘suit’ and join the nine to fivers. Levi, protagonist of A Beginners Guide to Dying in India, instead, finds himself diving headlong into a curious adventure into the depths of India (extremities included).
This debut novel from local boy J. M. Donellan is freaking hilarious. It’s got all indicators of a great novel, including the ones that shouldn’t be. Anecdotal and strange, he uses a language of an American comedian with a sort of British wit. When an author quotes George Michael (guilty feet have got no rhythm) during the opening chapter in relation to workplace politics you know you should keep reading. Read it. Burn it. That may well be the point.
– Sarah Werkmeister, FourThousand