Publisher Description

A surgeon must bring a dead family back to life in this fabulist debut novel set in rural India, called "otherworldly" and "a haunting contemplation of life, death, the liminal space in between, and the dogged search for resurrection" (Kirkus Reviews, starred).

Fleeing scandal in the city, a surgeon accepts a job at a village clinic. He buys antibiotics out of pocket, squashes roaches, and chafes at the interventions of the corrupt officer who oversees his work.

But his outlook on life changes one night when a teacher, his pregnant wife, and their young son appear. Killed in a violent robbery, they tell the surgeon that they have been offered a second chance at living if the surgeon can mend their wounds before sunrise.

So begins a night of quiet work, "as if the crickets had been bribed," during which the surgeon realizes his future is tied more closely to that of the dead family than he could have imagined. By dawn, he and his assistant have gained knowledge no mortal should have.

In this inventive novel charged with philosophical gravity and sly humor, Vikram Paralkar takes on the practice of medicine in a time when the right to health care is frequently challenged. Engaging earthly injustice and imaginaries of the afterlife, he asks how we might navigate corrupt institutions to find a moral center. Encompassing social criticism and magically unreal drama, Night Theater is a first novel as satisfying for its existential inquiry as for its enthralling story of a skeptical physician who arrives at a greater understanding of life's miracles.

Author Biography

Vikram Paralkar was born and raised in Mumbai. Author of a previous book, The Afflictions, he is a physician–scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, where he treats patients with leukemia and researches the disease. He lives in Philadelphia.

Review

An American Booksellers Association Indie Next Selection

"A bizarre, surreal story about a doctor in a small Indian village who must operate on the corpses of three people before sunrise so that they can come back to life. Despite this synopsis, it's no Frankenstein tale and functions as a quiet, philosophical exercise." —Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Washington Post

"Paralkar does know how to construct some beautiful lines, just like the opening one. Really, there are too many to quote. He sows lovely lines like someone might sow wildflowers; they're all over the place. At his best, Paralkar also evokes a vivid sense of place, and his knowledge of medical procedures—he's a physician—also shows during the detailed surgical scenes. It's in those moments that Night Theater really blooms . . . First lines may be fun, but even better are writers who manage to intrigue you."" —Siliva Moreno–Garcia, NPR

"Set in rural India, Paralkar's Night Theater is a medical drama that veers into the unearthly . . . This book braids philosophy, magical realism, and the complicated facts of health care in the modern age into a compact and compelling story." —BuzzFeed, 1 of 15 Small Press Books to Kick Off Your Reading Season

"A focused, tension–filled, hard–to–put–down story. The world is magical from the start, with its undead walking and talking, but it is also so grounded in the medical workings of these surgeries . . . One of my favorite reads of recent years." —Sarah Blake, The Rumpus

"A great mix of creepy ghost story, medical drama, gory body stuff, murder mystery, spiritualism, and parable–esque commentary on humanity and the failings of government . . . One–sitting read for a dark night."—Electric Literature

"Paralkar merges folklore and fable, meditative commentary and meticulous detail . . . Paralkar, a physician–scientist, melds medical realism and metaphysical debate, wry humor and somber observations to create a riveting and intriguing tale." —Booklist

"A wildly surreal novel . . . Written by an actual physician–scientist, Night Theater dredges up ethical/existential questions and a whole lot of wonder." ––Katie Yee, Literary Hub, One of the Most Anticipated Books of the Year

"Otherworldly . . . [Paralkar's] prose is sharp and melodious, and within these enchanting passages is a haunting contemplation of life, death, the liminal space in between, and the dogged search for resurrection . . . A beguiling and unforgettable fable."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Fablelike tale that melds the philosophical with the corporeal . . . Paralkar's novel underscores the arbitrary nature of death, the fact that one can neither prepare for it nor, perhaps, cheat one's way out of it . . . Grotesque, strange, and hopeful in turns, the novel will leave readers marveling at the mysteries of death—and the wonders of life." —Publishers Weekly

"Paralkar's story is deeply philosophical and digs into the reasons that surgeons, who work at the brink of death, fight so hard for their patients. What makes the story so compelling is that while surgeons carry the power of life and death in their hands, they are fundamentally human, just like their patients." ––Neha Patel, Book Riot

"Yes, Night Theater is an exquisite fable about what we need and what we want, and a beautiful meditation on what it means to be alive. But it reads like an urgent thriller, full of characters pumping with blood and guts, twisting and turning and twisting again. This novel actually kept me up all night and then some." —Aja Gabel, author of The Ensemble

Review Quote

Praise for Night Theater "Yes, Night Theater is an exquisite fable about what we need and what we want, and a beautiful meditation on what it means to be alive. But it reads like an urgent thriller, full of characters pumping with blood and guts, twisting and turning and twisting again. This novel actually kept me up all night and then some, clutching my mortality, listening to my heartbeat, drawing that line between the living and the dead until it blurred." -- Aja Gabel, author of The Ensemble "In rural India an unnamed surgeon uncovers old secrets: What do angels look like? Why are tears denied to the dead? Is the afterlife run by bureaucrats? The surgeon's indifference to death is like God's, only more terrifying because it is human. I read this book in a single addictive sitting. It will stay with me for a long time." -- Jeet Thayil, author of the Booker Prize-short-listed Narcopolis "Haunting and irresistible. I cannot wait for you to read this book." -- Way

Description for Sales People

This debut novel is Jordan Peele meets Carmen Maria Machado, set in rural India A new kind of Indian literature for American readers In meditative, evocative detail, Paralkar offers the story of one unearthly evening, when a physician must confront both his own self-doubt and his skepticism of the supernatural to save the lives of three strangers--only to learn how irreversibly connected his own fate is to theirs Night Theater is a hallucinatory fever dream, a literary ghost story from a talented author ready to break out to a larger audience. It''s also a reflection on all-too-real issues, on the power (or lack thereof) we instill in our physicians, and on the profoundly mutable state of life in spaces meant for healing (hospitals, clinics) For fans of Helen Oyeyemi, Samanta Schweblin, Eduardo Halfon, Brian Evenson, or Rivka Galchen, as well as for readers who prefer their fiction haunted with a dash of the surreal or with some destabilizing supernatural elements (like the work of Carmen Maria Machado, Hiromi Kawakami, Italo Calvino, etc.) Paralkar can paint a scene even as he has you tearing through the pages; the clinic and the characters, the family''s wounds, and the doctor''s instruments are rendered in vivid detail, yet as a reader, you feel the ticking hands of the surgery room clock as sunrise bears down on the murdered family Night Theater explores how class, access, education, and location influence our relationship to medicine: is it magic or science, or some combination of the two? Most rural or low-income communities rely more on the supernatural than the scientific remedies, and why are we so dismissive of the natural remedies science struggles to explain? Paralkar views fiction the way he views medicine: "When a patient comes to a doctor, the latter tries to find out their story, how they ended up this way, and a way to potentially change the future. I think that''s what authors are doing. They''re trying to take some aspect of human beings that puzzles, disquiets, fascinates them, and digging deeper to find out what they can understand. While my writing is a separate endeavour from my medical work and research, there are certain invisible strands connecting the two." (from an interview in The Hindu , February 2019) The author, an hematologist-oncologist, lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is a U.S. citizen, eligible for national prizes and accolades Select Praise From Booksellers "A literary page-turner, Paralkar''s Night Theater is an engaging exploration of life, death, and the afterlife. The novel follows a jaded, washed-up surgeon in rural India--understaffed, undersupplied, and overly cynical. Late one night, a young family, recently murdered yet somehow walking and talking, visits his clinic telling the surgeon that they can have a second chance at life only if he is able to repair their wounds that night before they are fully reanimated. What follows is a tautly paced, at turns gruesomely humorous, fable-like novel that almost feels like a wonderfully remixed version of A Christmas Carol or It''s a Wonderful Life but with emergency surgery on the walking dead. Insightful, philosophical, and endlessly readable, I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent in Vikram Paralkar''s dimly lit, roach-infested clinic." --Caleb Masters, Bookmarks (Winston-Salem, NC) "What do I really know about surgeons? Only what I''ve picked up from Doctor Strange , profiles of Atul Gawande, and TV medical shows. With that as reference, I would expect a generic surgeon to be egotistical, exactingly meticulous, and contemplative about mortality. Vikram Paralkar uses these archetypal qualities as the building blocks of a rich tale of the limits of human knowledge, skill, and mettle. Told with a remarkable economy, Night Theater takes a supernatural, Gothic premise and plays it out with the kind of calm, procedural manner that is required in any operating room. The big questions of morality and mortality presented by this tale will haunt readers more than any ghosts ever could. Night Theater is a gripping parable of the limits of medical science and human resilience." --Keith Mosman, Powell''s Books (Portland, OR) "I loved this novel. Both the writing and the story pulled me in immediately and held me there, making it a book that was hard to put down. The emotional current running through it and the philosophies examined pertaining to how we perceive and value life were subtly intoxicating. Night Theater is a beautifully carried story, lovely and unexpected." --Aubrey Winkler, Powell''s Books (Portland, OR) "I adored this book. It was the perfect length, taking place over the course of a single, suspenseful night. The descriptions were wonderfully written, and the characters were fascinating. I loved the philosophic edge and the life after death theme that hung over the entire story. It was thrilling, sad, and so very human." --Lauren Nopenz Fairley, Curious Iguana (Frederick, MD) "For all the philosophical and metaphysical questions this book raises, it reads with the hair-raising urgency of a thriller." --Rachel Schneck, Harvard Book Store (Cambridge, MA) "What does it mean to be truly alive? When a village surgeon comes face-to-face with three impossible patients, he must decide if he is willing to risk everything to try to help them. What a story. A mix of speculative fiction and operating room drama, this book totally enraptured me." --Jennifer Rohrbach, Newtonville Books (Newton, MA) "Prolific and powerful, Vikram Paralkar''s Night Theater isn''t so much a tale as it is, quite literally, a philosophical debate between the living and the dead. Dr. Saheb is a surgeon well-known throughout his village and beyond, though some missteps in his past have left him bitter and cold to the world around him and the patients he sees. Saheb must leave behind his coldness on the night that a teacher, his pregnant wife, and their son visit him, asking him to do the unfathomable: undo the damage of their deaths after they were murdered, so they may be allowed to return to life and leave their deaths behind them. But, as Saheb learns quickly through the nature of their injuries, what kind of life would they really be returning to, and how? A dialogue of the afterlife, faith, and honesty, Night Theater is a beautiful and dark story that builds itself as a powerful prayer to one select entity: life." --Delany Holcomb, Bookmarks (Winston-Salem, NC) " Night Theater is peculiar, wise, gorgeous, dark, and difficult to put down. I''ll be thinking on this one for a long while." --Danielle Raub, Itinerant Literate Books (North Charleston, SC) "This book is brilliant and strange and unlike anything I''ve ever read! It will satisfy sci-fi/fantasy readers as well as literary fiction folk who like to encounter new places and scenarios. My heart pounded as I read this--it reminded me a bit of Jos

Details