Tyrewala, Altaf 1977-

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Tyrewala, Altaf 1977-

PERSONAL:

Born January, 1977, in Bombay, India. Education: Earned bachelor's degree; attended H.R. College of Commerce and Economics.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Bombay, India.

CAREER:

Writer. Worked as an instructional writer for software companies in Bombay for one year.

WRITINGS:

No God in Sight (novel), Penguin Books (New Delhi, India), 2005, MacAdam/Cage (San Francisco, CA), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Altaf Tyrewala's novel No God in Sight provides a portrait of the everyday life of a cross-section of inhabitants of Bombay, India. Tyrewala is a native of Bombay and also a Muslim. Although Bombay, or Mumbai as it is officially known, is in some ways considered one of the most multicultural cities in India, there are still deep tensions between Hindus and Muslims there. During the 1990s, there were riots pitting Hindus against Muslims that resulted in many deaths, and, according to Tyrewala, the scars of those riots are still evident today. In his book, Tyrewala presents forty-six different episodes featuring a broad range of characters. Some of the sketches are only a few pages long, others as long as fourteen pages. Commenting on No God in Sight in an interview with Sonia Phalnikar for Qantara, Tyrewala said: "While I am glad that No God in Sight is being called a Bombay novel, it was never my intention to write a self-consciously Bombay novel. My attempt was to capture individual stories and account for people who are rarely looked at in literature or in life, and if the city has somehow been captured, that is incidental."

A reviewer for SFGate.com found that with so many characters, most of whom appear very briefly and then disappear for the remainder of the book, it is "impossible for the writer to develop anyone in much depth." Yet the reviewer also mused: "Perhaps his aim was this: a gritty, often unappealing, occasionally captivating whirlwind tour" of the places and people he knows so well. Tyrewala's style makes for "a risky, sometimes entertaining, sometimes confusing approach," stated the reviewer. The cast of characters represents "the confusion and dissension of post-Colonial India," remarked a reviewer for Curled Up with a Good Book. A Publishers Weekly writer called No God in Sight a "laudable debut," but added: "some readers will find that what each character thinks is less interesting than how they think."