Things change; they are meant to change; constant is nothing except the change itself, and we should embrace change as well! In a nutshell, this is the message that the book Second Chance by Dr. Sandeep Jatwa delivers to you. A novel with a certain quota of fiction and of motive, Second Chance is an amazing piece of modern Indian literature in English language. Let’s get into the details of the book and I will tell my readers what are the reasons which make sure you must read this book by Sandeep. Moreover, I will also try my best to point out the ‘not good’ things in the book to make my review as objective as possible.

The novel Second Chance is about life – sin- redemption – and life again. Shekhar Kapoor, the chairman of Aerowalk, is the protagonist who has been shown in the ugly light in the first part of the novel and after the wonderful hell intermission, he, the same Shekhar, becomes the wonderful hero who does everything right to make his ‘second chance’ justified and dignified to an extent. The plot of the novel revolves around Shekhar and Shekhar’s deeds.

Before his temporal death, Shekhar is a bad person. He is a billionaire who does not understand even the alphabets of decency. He is rude; he is arrogant; he is bad; he is lavish and he is everything else except being good! This attitude of Shekhar Kapoor does not make him a likable person at all and down, in an implicit way, he is hated by everyone except Manohar and his father. He crashes his cars; he abuses people; he misbehaves with his employees; he likes doing wrong and he does never think it worthy to regret. However, there is something which haunts him regularly. Shekhar receives emails, letters, and phone calls which are signed the City of Justice. These are sent as warnings, reminding Shekhar of the wrongdoings of him.

Things go like this before the day comes and Shekhar is dead in an accident. The chapter Justice Room is rich in imagery, motifs and also content. This chapter leads to other beautiful chapters and also the atonement of Shekhar and he finally realises that life is not meant to harm other lives. He receives his second chance and comes back to earth. What happens thereafter is something that readers will enjoy only after reading the novel and I will not spoil their enjoyment by exposing the novel’s plot completely here.

Critically, the book is written in a simple and plain language which is rather suitable for this fiction where the author Sandeep Jatwa has to deliver the message to the readers. The narrative is also straightforward as well as the plot which walks in the ‘forward’ direction without unnecessary twists and turns. Yes, there are some lackings in the book and those can be commemorated in the form of the unwilling mingling of science and myths. It can be understood, though, that the modern way of delivering purposeful mythological messages are like this, still; the fiction could do better if the author could find a little different medium than science (emails, calls etc from the City of Justice). But, you cannot stop your mind from enjoying the amusement of the City of Justice and therefore, you will have to give credit to the author for that! He has made things look light and successfully deliver his serious message out of that.

To conclude, novel Second Chance is a great piece of modern fiction and I am sure readers will enjoy the novel. Author Sandeep, being a debutant, has done a commendable job and he has offered a book with a difference. A 190-page novel, this will make your day better for sure! Give the guy a read and you might be waiting for another one from him.

Review written by Amit Mishra