Hosein...sensitively teases apart the tangled web of class and religion and emphasizes the hard choices the powerless routinely live with. Ultimately, this was a depressing and heavy read and I was disappointed that there weren’t many references to ghosts at all. I don’t think I really liked any of the characters? Apart from Rookmin.

HUNGRY GHOSTS | Kirkus Reviews HUNGRY GHOSTS | Kirkus Reviews

I know authors are supposed to erect obstacles for their characters and to keep placing these up. But in this book, the barriers and challenges provided nothing redeeming, consoling, or educational (or remotely satisfying). There was no resolution for the main character, Shivan. of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction by Gabor Maté

I have to say that throughout I was willing something good to come from something bad but that might be simply because I am an optimist. Either way the triggering event of Changoor's disappearance is the catalyst for all the other problems and tragedies that occur.

Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein | Waterstones

We may say, then, that in the world of the psyche, freedom is a relative concept: the power to choose exists only when our automatic mechanisms are subject to those brain systems that are able to maintain conscious awareness. A person experiences greater or less freedom from one situation to the next, from one interaction to the next, from one moment to the next. Anyone whose automatic brain mechanisms habitually run in overdrive has diminished capacity for free decision making, especially if the parts of the brain that facilitate conscious choice are impaired or underdeveloped.” Take Kolkata, for example. Bengali, Hindi and English are three of the world's six most widely spoken languages -- there are millions who are trilingual. Surely there must be a large enough audience to make it worthwhile to publish more books using elements of all three languages. Hopefully, some of Kolkata's many writers and poets will take what Selvadurai has done by sprinkling his Canadian English with Sinhala and Tamil to the next level by writing books the way they speak in daily life. This novel also portrays the difficulties faced by Sri Lankans who tried to start a new life in western countries, after fleeing the motherland due to the unsavory political situations. At the top of the hill is the comfortable, but isolated manor house of the farm owner and his beautiful, young and lonely wife.This book takes on huge themes of masculinity, grief, forgiveness, domestic violence, class and social mobility. Yet, they are all expertly handled by Hossein and provide much food for thought. I would say that the richness of this novel was almost a little too much at times, giving me a slight sense of reader indigestion as I worked at trying to take everything in. Garuda Purana . Translated by J.L. Shastri. Ancient Indian Tradition and Mythology 12-14, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 1982 . VEDA -Vedas and Vedic Knowledge Online