Who do you Want to be today?

With so many books on the market it can often be hard to pick one that is really interesting and which will not turn out to be a waste of your time. And Hari Kunzru's The Impressionist is certainly one of the most absorbing, critically acclaimed and morally challenging publications out at the moment.

It is incredible howa person's life can change and how many different roles one might end up playing over the years. You can never be quite sure what tomorrow will bring: the only thing you can be sure of is that it will be nothing like what you imagined. And how about blending into new environments - would you be able to leave everything behind if it was required of you, or if it was the only way in which you could survive? And, last but not least, what will you have to show for your life when it is all over - would you have done anything differently given the choice? These are issues that everybody comes across at one point or another but no one can actually solve. Hari Kunzru seems to be aware of this, and makes perfect use of all the opportunities offered by these ever-nagging questions to explore our hopes and dreams of the future, our sense of identity, insecurity - and finally even to augment our fear of the unknown.

A Journey Across Identity
In The Impressionist Hari Kunzru takes us on a journey with the main character - Pran Nath, a half-English, half-lndian boy. And I am not only thinking in geographical terms, although the book does explore such diverse places as Bombay, the Punjab, London, Paris and remote West Africa. The point is that every setting seems to bring with it a new role for Pran Nath to play - and a new person to be. The only thing that will always accompany him throughout his life, and the only true thing about him, is his heritage, however hard he tries to hide it.

A story of someone's life always gives a writer a good opportunity to impress. And that is exactly the effect Kunzru's prose has on the reader. Kunzru not only draws an exceptional portrait of his main character, but at the same time shows us how much of an influence certain stereotypes have on our lives. Furthermore, he tries to discover what traits we think of as truly English, and helps us understand what was it that made the British Empire unable to stand the test of time. And he does it in style. The story keeps us in its grip from beginning to end, swinging from sarcasm through irony and comedy right down to harsh naturalism. But it is always witty. Even though there is a feeling of certain plot schemes being employed and one does not really get the chance to associate with the main character, it all seems to fit in the end.

First Impressions
All this from debutant novelist Hari Kunzru, who has been up to now best known as a travel writer and magazine contributor. Being half-Indian, half-English himself he knows what he is writing about. And hopefully he will continue to surprise us even more. But before he does, go to your local bookstore and get, in The Impressionist, some of the best new English prose you are likely to find.