Centripetal by Rohit Shukla – Book Review

Centripetal is a novel written by young and rising author Rohit Shukla. The novel is very intriguing, loaded with allusions to various popular songs in the background, many implicit analogies to compare predicaments of the characters in the novel to things (situations) in popular memory, the constant appearance of a certain narrator telling the readers what might happen next and what might have happened in the past… Centripetal is part science, part art and part supernatural novel with various timelines and various plotlines coming together. It tells many things because the author is impressed by Kafka!

Apparently, the novel is about certain characters that you will find playing on the ground offered by the novelists. Mangal, a failing and ‘losing hope’ author wants to complete his book but cannot. Niketan, a fading lover who wants to unite with his beloved Chahat, cannot find a way to do so. Jayant, Lakhan, Mithilesh, and many characters keep appearing from time to time. Shekhar is a major character who appears on many occasions and has a tainted past that gets revealed gradually in the course of the novel. 

There are many ways to look at this novel. From any angle one would try to observe this work by Rohit Shukla, there are certain things that come out. The novel is not meant for readers who want to see things unfold in a certain sequence. The novel is not for juvenile readers who want to see various explorations on romantic ideas and ideals that go through the physical human body. The novel is for those readers who can spend time learning about certain characters as they develop with the progress of the novel. Centripetal by Rohit Shukla is among those complex novels that I have read and enjoyed and pondered for many days even after finishing the text. This novel goes beyond text because it almost takes over your thoughts and emotions. You will feel for certain characters but also remain conscious of what might transpire in the next few pages and you may lose all your affiliations with that certain character. 

I will not give away too much about the plot of the novel because the joy of this intertwined story is in reading it, first hand. You will need to read it from the beginning to the end to understand who is the boy who haunts Mangal constantly. You will also need to understand what secrets does Mangal’s past hold. You will also learn how Niketan discovers many wanted and unwanted things on the way to finally meet his beloved Chahat. The plot is not as simple as we find in most of the contemporary novels written by young authors. Rohit Shukla, as an author, has developed everything – his storylines, the plot and various ideas that go on to build the wide array of themes covered in the novel – emphatically and does deserve a big thumbs up for doing the same. 

The novel, Centripetal, is a sure go and I believe that readers will find it very interesting. A few readers might need to take a few breaks as they finish the novel. So, if you are ready to discover the hidden secrets, get a copy of the novel right now from Amazon India.

Buy the novel now – click here to get a copy

Review by Ashish for Indian Book Critics