Capital

Book excerpt: Capital is a compelling biography of a critically important megacity, and the effects of sudden and all-consuming capitalist transformation. At the turn of the twenty-first century acclaimed novelist Rana Dasgupta arrived in the Indian capital with a single suitcase. He had no intention of staying for long. But the city beguiled him - he fell in love and in hate with it - and, fourteen years later, Delhi has become his home. Capital tells the story of Delhi's journey from walled city to world city. It is a story of extreme wealth and power, of land grabs and a cityscape changed almost beyond recognition. Everything that was slow, intimate and idiosyncratic has become fast, vast and generic; every aspect of life has been affected - for the poor, the middle classes and the super-rich. Through a series of fascinating personal encounters Dasgupta takes us inside the intoxicating, sometimes terrifying transformation of India's fastest-growing megacity, offering an astonishing 'report from the global future'. Rana Dasgupta won the 2010 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book for his debut novel, Solo. He is also the author of the highly praised story collection Tokyo Cancelled. Capital is his first work of non-fiction. Born in England, he now lives in Delhi. textpublishing.com.au 'The most unexpected and original Indian writer of his generation.' Salman Rushdie '[Dasgupta has] a gift for sentences of lancing power and beauty.' New Yorker 'A beautifully written portrait of a corrupt, violent and traumatised city growing so fast it is almost unrecognisable to its own inhabitants. An astonishing tour de force by a major writer at the peak of his powers.' William Dalrymple