‘The Edge Of Power’ by Tuhin Sinha | Book Review

Describing the political scenario prevailing in the country for the past few years, The Edge of Power by Tuhin Sinha features Shruti Ranjan, the female protagonist of his previous novel, The Edge of Desire. The novel is an attempt to unfold the vices present in India’s political system. Be it money laundering, corruption, defamation or conniving political parties, the book has everything. In order to hit the nerve with the readers, the author has tried to recreate the political situation of the country. He has described the two strong political parties in the book, IDP, the ruling government and in opposition Jan-Hit Party led by a power hungry and charismatic leader, Ravi Nehra.

Shruti Ranjan is traumatized by Nirbhaya’s rape and in turn is dragged back into the Indian politics by Daivik, an activist who launches his own political party “Azad Bharat Party”.  From there on, Shruti Ranjan’s fight for the post of Prime Minister begins. Now I am sure you can understand the parallelism between these fictional and real political parties, mentioning it explicitly would be politically incorrect. After that, the book dives into the murky ways of political class, extent to which the politicians can go to satiate their lust for money and power and how the game of thrones is played by the mix of brains and money.

In the book, Tuhin has given readers a peek into the personal life of people involved in politics, and has shown that how this proclivity for power is not just limited to their professional lives, but has manifested itself in the very spirit of a person. As you go further in the book, the similarity between real and fictional characters becomes so evident, that it displays the lack of creativity on author’s part. And the portions where author has tried to implant his creativity are typically Bollywood-inspired, like the good girls falling into the trap of hot , bad guys and a patriotic Sardarji, putting his job at stake for his motherland, lands the helicopter carrying the heroine in mid of a large audience.

The book needed a stronger plot, so as to be truly called a political fiction. It does try to examine the loopholes in our system and also poses questions about the functioning of our government, legal system and political parties, but go for it only if you don’t mind a tinge of emotional drama inspired by Hindi TV soaps.

Overall Rating: 3/5