The Parcel

by Anosh Irani

Finalist for the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and for the Governor General's Literary Award, this powerful new work, about a transgender sex worker in the red-light district of Bombay who is given an unexpected task, is a gripping literary page-turner--difficult and moving, surprising and tender. Anosh Irani's best novel yet, and his first with Knopf Canada.

The Parcel's astonishing heart, soul and unforgettable voice is Madhu--born a boy, but a eunuch by choice--who has spent most of her life in a close-knit clan of transgender sex workers in Kamathipura, the notorious red-light district of Bombay. Madhu identifies herself as a "hijra"--a person belonging to the third sex, neither here nor there, man nor woman. Now, at 40, she has moved away from prostitution, her trade since her teens, and is forced to beg to support the charismatic head of the hijra clan, Gurumai. One day Madhu receives a call from Padma Madam, the most feared brothel owner in the district: a "parcel" has arrived--a young girl from the provinces, betrayed and trafficked by her aunt--and Madhu must prepare it for its fate. Despite Madhu's reluctance, she is forced to take the job by Gurumai. As Madhu's emotions spiral out of control, her past comes back to haunt her, threatening to unravel a lifetime's work and identity. This is a dark, devastating but ultimately redemptive novel that promises to be one of the most talked-about publications of the year.

Genres: Fiction, India, Canada, LGBT, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Queer

280 pages, Hardcover

First published September 6, 2016

About the author

Anosh Irani is an Indo-Canadian novelist and playwright.

His novels and plays have garnered much critical and popular acclaim and he is considered to be a rising star in Canadian literature.

He was born and grew up in Mumbai, India in a Parsi family of relatively recent Persian origin (hence the surname Irani), but now makes his home in Vancouver, Canada.

He is a graduate of the University of British Columbia.

Reviews

[Aditi · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Nature chooses who will be transgender; individuals don't choose this."

----Mercedes Ruehl


Anosh Irani, an Indo-Canadian novelist, has penned a heart touching and extremely enlightening story about an Indian transgender and a very young "virgin" prostitute, where the transgender is given a job to groom the virgin girl for first time consensual sex with a customer, but through the girl's grooming journey, the transgender shares the story of her life from the struggling days of transformation to the rejection by her parents to the insults she hears on a daily basis to the red-light district in Mumbai where her soul belongs to.


Synopsis:

Finalist for the Writers'Trust Fiction Prize and for the Governor General's Literary Award, this powerful new work, about a transgender sex worker in the red-light district of Bombay who is given an unexpected task, is a gripping literary page-turner--difficult and moving, surprising and tender. Anosh Irani's best novel yet, and his first with Knopf Canada.
The Parcel's astonishing heart, soul and unforgettable voice is Madhu--born a boy, but a eunuch by choice--who has spent most of her life in a close-knit clan of transgender sex workers in Kamathipura, the notorious red-light district of Bombay. Madhu identifies herself as a "hijra"--a person belonging to the third sex, neither here nor there, man nor woman. Now, at 40, she has moved away from prostitution, her trade since her teens, and is forced to beg to support the charismatic head of the hijra clan, Gurumai. One day Madhu receives a call from Padma Madam, the most feared brothel owner in the district: a "parcel" has arrived--a young girl from the provinces, betrayed and trafficked by her aunt--and Madhu must prepare it for its fate. Despite Madhu's reluctance, she is forced to take the job by Gurumai. As Madhu's emotions spiral out of control, her past comes back to haunt her, threatening to unravel a lifetime's work and identity. This is a dark, devastating but ultimately redemptive novel that promises to be one of the most talked-about publications of the year."


Madhu, born as a boy but transformed as an eunuch in her early teens by castrating away her manhood with the help of her new guardian transgender lady, Gurumai, is now appointed to be a guide and a protector of the new "parcel" arrived in one of the most powerful ladies' brothels in the red-light district of Mumbai. And Madhu, who cannot turn down the wishes and the words of her dearest Gurumai, an aging eunuch and the boss of all eunuchs of the red light district, agrees to do the risky and sentimental task of preparing the virgin 10 year old Nepali girl, who was sold to the brothel owners by her family, for her first time sex with a customer. And alongside the ten year old's grooming, Madhu explores her long forgotten yet meaningful past days when she had a set of parents who never loved her when she was a little boy, and had forever been looked down by his strict father, through her days of transformation. Meanwhile Madhu constantly fantasized about going back to her old house and meeting her family. And Madhu has nothing to be sad about her new life, she has a set of eunuch sisters, a guardian who she obeys with her life, lots of friends and well wishers and a lover, but all she needs is herself and her soul to be free from everything. Because with age, her body is fighting to become a man rather than stay womanly and she herself wants that silent war to come to an end. And her wish comes true when that ten year old virgin prostitute girl sets her free from that red light district.

Well to be honest, I've haven't read anything so much intimidating and intense, both at the same time and that which left an actual imprint on my mind. But the surprising thing that happened to me after reading this book, that one day I hugged an eunuch (Hijra) who was begging at a traffic inter-junction in my city while I was on the way to my work. I mean the book is extremely gripping, terrifying and something that not only moistened my eyes but also my soul. And after reading this book, I'll never be able to look at the transgender human beings with irritation or sympathy, instead I'll look at them proudly for their bravery and the daily battle that they fight on a daily basis. This book will open the eyes of the readers towards the third gender whom we pay no attention at all or sometimes we pay a penny or two to ease off their shrill and cranky voices begging for some money during the red signals on road.

The author's writing is really eloquent yet somewhere it lacked luster and the way the author has penned the story with so much depth will sometimes prove to be a slow-burner for the readers. But if the readers stick to the story line, no matter how much tedious it gets, they will be able to feel the inner chord of pain and struggle of the protagonist and the world around her that voices their pain through Madhu, the protagonist. The narrative is touchy and filled with deep, dark emotions that sometimes human beings never dare to prod them as they carry so much weight and holds the ability to drown the souls into their depth. And this book reflects exactly those kind of emotions, deep and intensifying all through out.

The projection of the city of Mumbai, especially its red-light district is extremely strikingly done and reflects the authentic feel of the city. The author's vivid portrayal of the city of Mumbai will make the readers visually imagine each and every details right before their own eyes. And the red-light district is so well depicted with the muffled screams and the real screams of the souls those have made that part of the city as their humble abode, also with the bright glittering neon lights, the stinking stench during the day light and the sweet scent of the perfume during the dark, everything makes it come alive from the pages of this book.

The characters are extremely well developed with patience and realism flowing through their down-to-earth demeanor. Madhu, the protagonist, speaks of her story and through her story, the readers will learn about the life of a transgender as well as those who do not belong there with an identity. Madhu's fight to become a woman in a world where she knew will never be accepted is extremely profound and will enlighten the readers about a transgender human's plight in an Indian society. Moreover, the author sheds light on the fact that how young girls are treated as goods when they are sold by their family to a brothel and how their feelings never matter once sold.

In a nutshell, this is a really rich and overpowering book about a transgender's constantly struggling life and emotions, while slightly it also touches the life of a young prostitute.

Verdict: A must read book that is highly absorbing and soul touching!

Courtesy: Thanks to the publishers from Random House Canada for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Lata · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't say I enjoyed this book about sex trafficking and the sex trade in Mumbhai. I found it tough reading about young girls sold by their families into the sex trade, and the processes used to get girls ready to service many men every day. The beatings, drug use, humiliation, disease and general living conditions in the red light district ensure short life spans for these girls.

This story is told from the point of view of Madhu, a transgender former sex worker with experience 'breaking' young girls to become prostitutes. Madhu employs a psychological process with the young girls, finding they function better as prostitutes after, rather than the more conventional approach of beating and raping 'the parcels', as the girls are known.

Madhu is tired, and had retired from her work of breaking, but is forced to begin working on a new parcel by a feared madam for whom she has done this work before. The interaction with the new girl, and Madhu's own distress at her own past, is the main part of the story.

I was intrigued by this story after listening to an interview given by the author; he had spent some of his youth outside this red light district, and had spent much time researching this book, talking to prostitutes, Hijra (transgender individuals) and others populating the area. That said, I didn't find it easy to get through this book; the author is a good writer, but I had a lot of difficulties dealing with the girls' situations and the attitudes towards the Hijra. Which was probably the point, I think.

[Eric Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel was published at the perfect time for me. I'd read Arundhati Roy's sprawling new novel “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness” over the summer. While I admired so much about her impassioned writing, I was disappointed that she didn't concentrate more on the full story of Anjum, an intersex character or hijra whose story begins the novel. Then, more recently, I read Shobha Roa's book of short stories “An Unrestored Woman” for the Anna & Eric Book Club and one of the stories which struck me most was 'Blindfold' about the madam of a brothel who purchases young girls to turn them into prostitutes. Both these stories left me eager to better understand characters like these and learn more about these aspects of Indian society.

Coincidentally, Anosh Irani's “The Parcel” is essentially a blend of these two tales as it follows a character named Madhu, a 40 year old hijra whose years of prostitution in the notorious Kamathipura red light district are behind her. While she lives in a household with other intersex individuals, she's been reduced to begging on the side of the road to earn money. Madhu also works for Padma, a fiercely independent madam of a local brothel. Madhul helps new girls (who are frequently purchased from their families in Nepal) to adjust to a life in prostitution and accept their new situation. The novel follows the way she indoctrinates of one such ten year old girl and the dramatic changes that occur within the house of hijras where she resides. It’s an arresting and incredibly thought provoking story that totally gripped me.

Read my full review of The Parcel by Anosh Irani on LonesomeReader

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read Arundhati Roy's Booker nominated The Ministry of Utmost Happiness a few years back, I was most struck by the initial hundred or so pages, which detailed the life of the hijra Anjum. So when I heard about this book, which is also centered on a hijra character, I was intrigued. Irani's book is far grittier however, and reading it was both harrowing and disturbing, because most of it details Madhu, the hijra's, preparation of a young 10 year old girl from Nepal to begin a life of prostitution.

Perhaps because I read it right in the thick of revelations about Jeffrey Epstein's arrest for decades of sex trafficking children, the book was heart wrenching in its immediacy. Irani's writing is excellent, as can be seen by the many awards he's won and been nominated for, but I just found most of this difficult to get through, although it DOES have a hopeful ending. It's a book that I have a feeling won't be easily forgotten however, but a word of caution for anyone with delicate sensibilities.

[Aritri Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remember being stuck in a phase of life that makes you cringe and suffocate. You feel so out of place and your only reasonable action is desperately trying to fit in. Now imagine, having to do that throughout your life because you are confined within the shackles of the wrong body. Add to that, the uncooperative and cruel society that doesn’t let you be at peace. Constant disapproval and ostracism from everyone who is unlike you is bound to drive you bitter and crazy. So what do you do in such circumstances? You survive. You survive in whatever meagre way possible because giving up is not so easy when, despite your abnormalities, you have high hopes and aspirations in your life.

At the traffic junction, in marriages, at parks, we spot these human beings whom we endearingly call ‘hijras’. The band of soldiers who are fighting with the society everyday because they have been blessed to be in the intermediate of mankind and womankind. The pain of not being either eats into them, rots away their bodies and their souls. Their unexpected arrival has irked us each and every time and out of embarrassment we have handed over the money they have begged for. “Good riddance!” But do we really think that the money can help us get rid of their presence forever or could it help them get rid of their eternal suppressal in the hands of the “normal” men and women who have been fortunate to pick one side as soon as they were born. Such rants are the result of reading a beautiful book called ‘The Parcel’, wherein I was spellbound by the aspirations of Madhu who could have lived a normal life of she had chosen a side. But since she chose neither she was shunned to the hijra gulli. But does that make her dreams any different to the ones that we have? Anosh Irani has craftily captured the various excruciating activities that go on in the red-light district through the eyes of Madhu. 

What made the book stand out was how it wasn’t just a survivor’s rescual story. It was much more than that. It gave us a glimpse of the world that is considered to be too different to ours in spite of being close geographically. The book was not all about the pain, it focused on the kindness of these souls towards one another that helped them strive through the circumstances. Most importantly the author made us believe that these fellow humans we so royally shunned are no different than us. Only their faces are naked and they are not donning masks like their privileged counterparts.

If you have ever been annoyed at the sight of a hijra, then go to the link above or to your nearest bookstore and get yourself a copy of this book. And read.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know if I would have read this book had I not happened to catch a radio interview with the author. He said he just had to write it. It takes place near where he grew up in India. The red light district was close enough that it stayed with him all these years forcing him to tell a story about it. So I had to read it.

This story teeters on the line between fiction and non-fiction...which makes it all the more terrible. It's told from the point of view of Mahdu. In the beginning, a boy who always knew he was really a girl. So did everyone else, which brought shame on the parents and subsequent neglect for Madhu until he left and entered a whole new world just a few streets away.

While the story tells of what happened to Madhu, it also tells of how others became part of this world and ultimately how Madhu came to be in charge of the Parcel. A young girl sold by her family to be broken in (or more aptly put, broken down) by Madhu for the man who purchased her.

It's sad and a true eye opener. Things are so different here on the other side of the world that it would be easier to read this thinking it's pure fiction. I can hardly believe this is life for some people out there. Truly heart-breaking.

[Ameema S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book from Indigo Head Office.

Honestly, as excited as I was about this book (a novel about a Hijra in India), it fell a little flat. First things first, I was a little disappointed to learn that Anosh Irani did not interview a Hijra until after he had written his first draft of the book. That seems presumptive to me, and if [you] want to write about a population that is so often shafted, and not talked about, it is important to lend them an authentic voice.

As obvious as Anosh Irani's talent as a writer it, it felt a little like he was trying too hard to be gritty. It often seemed disjointed, and I felt like he was just trying to 'shock'. For example, there would be a few sentences that were powerful, and beautifully written, and then all of a sudden, there would be a jarring word or metaphor thrown in - it seemed random and unnecessary, like the author was just trying to go for shock-factor.

I get that Madhu, and many of the other individuals in the book have a really tough go of things, and that their lives are miserable and that it's not going to necessarily be an optimistic novel, it was frustratingly gritty and dark and frustrating. There wasn't a single character I really liked (which I didn't actually mind in this case). However, this book was a bit difficult to get through. It was a little confusing at times, I still don't think I completely understand what happened at the end - it sort of felt like the whole plot built up incredibly slowly, but then the end was rushed and confused and I think that made it lose some of its poignancy.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

When it came to the opening of a parcel, Madhu did not believe in the conventional approach wherein the madam and a couple of prostitutes pinned the parcel down to a bed while the customer broke her in. The parcels momentarily turned into eels, the terror electric, until their muscles went limp. There was no doubt that this was the quickest method, and it required minimal effort on the brothel owner's part, but Madhu surmised that in the long run it was counterproductive. The sudden breaking in dislodged the parcels so badly that they teetered on the edge of madness for years, and some clients had a problem sleeping with what they thought were mental patients.

Author Anosh Irani grew up in Mumbai, adjacent to the red-light district known as Kamathipura. Having long been fascinated by the inhabitants of those infamous few blocks, Irani has now spotlighted them in The Parcel; a book that explores the lives of some of the most vulnerable participants in that city's sex trade. I've read quite a few books set in India, and while the focus of these novels has usually been the underclasses and the particular hardships that Indian society imposes on them, The Parcel illuminates a whole new substrata; and for the knowledge I have gleaned, I am pleased to have read this book. As for the actual execution of an artful piece of literature, I'm not sure that Irani totally pulled it off.

Oh, look at this rickety face
Look where it is placed
On the body of a woman
Who was once a man
But is now neither, neither, neither.

To begin, our narrator Madhu is a hijra: identifying as neither girl nor boy but an in-between third gender – Neither here nor there, neither desert nor forest, neither earth nor sky, neither man nor woman – those born with a penis tend to become eunuchs by choice in order to express their inner natures. As it would seem with every possible subgroup of people, hijras have their place in Indian society – they attend and perform at weddings and births, they offer blessings on street corners (which can take the form of aggressive begging), and although some hijras might look down their noses at the sex trade, many become popular prostitutes – and based on the presence of eunuchs in the sacred Hindu texts, hijras are tolerated, if marginalised, by the rest of society. As the book begins, Madhu is a forty-year-old hijra, and although she had been a much desired prostitute in her youth, she left the sex trade when her body and mind finally revolted. Still feeling a debt to the aging hijra guru, Gurumai, who had helped her transition into her truer self, Madhu now spends her days as a beggar on the streets (after also revolting against the idea of becoming a wedding dancer) in order to contribute to their hijra household. As a person of no real power, Madhu is incapable of resisting when a local madam, Padma, requests her services in readying a new parcel for “opening”; and although the parcel is a ten-year-old Nepalese girl who had been sold by her aunt (for less than the price of a sacrificial goat), Madhu is jaded enough from her own career in the brothel to understand that her job is to toughen up the girl, not to offer her kindness or support.

As Madhu looks back on her own life, the best parts are her confusing childhood – expected to act like a boy by her traditional parents, little Madhu couldn't help but lisp and sashay despite the routine beatings – and from her older perspective, it was moving when she began to wonder if Gurumai had indeed “saved” her from her stifling homelife; what if Gurumai had merely been in search of “parcels” herself when she offered Madhu a life as a hijra? What if Madhu simply hadn't given her parents enough time to grow to accept their son's true nature? What would happen if she returned home now after a quarter century without contact?

With various backstories for secondary characters, Irani did a good job of showing the many paths that might lead a person to Mumbai's red-light district (all of which demonstrate India's persistent patriarchal devaluing of the nonmasculine). As with other Mumbai-set books I've read, the booming real estate market threatens to displace that city's most vulnerable citizens (and while bulldozing the tumble-down red-light district might seem like a civic good, where would all the hijras and prostitutes go to live?) So while there was much good and informative in The Parcel, I wasn't engaged by the actual writing; Irani did more telling than showing, and despite the emotionally charged nature of the situation, I was never emotionally connected to the characters. I've read many positive reviews for The Parcel – it's not up for some big literary awards for no reason – but I'm going to share the concluding paragraph from the Macleans review because it succinctly says what I'm trying to get at:

To be sure, the exhaustive, sometimes vivid detail with which Vancouver-based Irani depicts hijra customs, brothel life and the world of sex trafficking suggests much research. But knowledge, or rather the impulse to share it, can be a mixed blessing for fiction, and that often proves the case here. This being a novel seeking to answer, rather than provoke, inquiry, the feeling of fullness we get by the end is ultimately more pedagogic than aesthetic.

I am glad to have read The Parcel and recommend it as an informative depiction of a group of marginalised people I had never before heard of. I am really torn between three and four stars and am going to round down, but just barely.

[Kelsi H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Please read all of my reviews at http://ultraviolentlit.blogspot.ca!

The Parcel is a unique novel about a transgender sex worker in the red light district of Bombay. Madhu is aging out of the prostitute market and she needs to make sure that she's still necessary to the brothel, so she takes an undesirable job. Madhu is given the shocking task of handling a "parcel" - a child who has been kidnapped and sold into the sex trade. In the world of sex trafficking, the victims soon become willing participants in order to save themselves.

Madhu was born a boy but becomes a eunuch by choice - she is part of the third sex known as "hijra", neither man nor woman. She is part of a tight knit group of trans prostitutes - reluctant to do what it takes to prepare a young girl for work in the brothel, she knows she has no choice. As she works with the girl, it brings back memories of her own youth - a tragic past that comes back to haunt her.

This novel is dark and devastating. It is difficult to read, but ultimately hopeful. I was quickly immersed in the noisy, colourful life of Bombay's slums, and Madhu's dangerous, shocking living conditions. I was fully involved in Madhu's character, although the secondary characters are not as strong. This is an unusual story full of graphic details - it is a world that most people will never encounter, and Madhu's story is illuminating.

I received this novel from Random House and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Carling · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Parcel is not my story. Yet as I read its tangled and complex narrative, I couldn’t help but feel as though my own thoughts had been exposed on the page. This is easily the most accurate but also most honest depiction of the cycle of abuse and surviving what should have killed you that I have ever read. It shows how easy those who have been victimized by the system can in turn uphold the very system that destroyed their lives. Irani skillfully brings the red light district of Bombay to life with unforgettable characters and gorgeous prose. Easily one of my favourite books of 2017 and I highly highly recommend.
5 stars

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Won in the First Reads giveaway.

Was really good, although I would like to read a book about the hijra community by a hijra writer.

I understand that this subject matter would be dark, but sometimes it was like the grittiness was being forced. Like there would be several wonderfully written parts and then the writer would remember to use a jarring word. There was one line about cigarette smoke dissipating like an abortion. It just seemed random and unnecessary. But the rest of the book was beautiful.

[Magdelanye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excruciating and profoundly disturbing, nevertheless this is a story that broke my heart.

The things that made one human - love, hope, health- had been ripped from her calmly and precisely.
p262

Anosh Irani grew up very close to the neighborhood where this story takes place, giving an authenticity and immediacy to the goings on that he documents in this fictional account of a corner of the complex sex trade in India. This is very much the territory of Arundhati Roys epic new novel, but they are not at all the same. The Parcel sustains an intimacy that allows the reader to endure the relentless bleakness to the surprising conclusion.

Sometimes life gave you a lesser version of a dream, and it was up to you to take it. p209

[Andy Weston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in of the crumbling Kamathipura neighbourhood, this is a sad, but fascinating piece of Mumbai noir, loosely disguised as a social commentary, with occasional very necessary dollops of dark humour.
The novel’s 40 year old protagonist is Madhu, an Indian eunuch, or hijra , a group alienated by society, criminalised under the law, harassed by police and the public, and overwhelmingly poor. Once a sought after prostitute, now obliged to beg for money, Madhu lives with her much loved Hijra ‘family’. Within this context, arrives a "parcel," a trafficked 10-year-old girl from rural Nepal, and is entrusted into the care of Madhu, by the raunchy and elderly matriarch of the house.
The growing tension of the young girl’s arrival is broken by the slow and deliberate revelation of Madhu's youthful transformation.
The sheer amount of physical and psychological trauma taking place could easily make for difficult reading, but Irani tells no sob story. His portrait of Madhu and her community is tender and yet heroic, comic and yet tragic, dignified and yet distressing. It’s a memorable read.

Here’s a clip from one of Madhu’s flashbacks..

Hijra Gulli became his haunt. He tried on makeup, learned how to shuffle cards like a shark, chewed paan, smoked beedis until his tongue burned then gargled like one possessed so that no smell lingered when he got home, made lewd jokes, learned about two types of cocks, cut and uncut, understood the differences between a hermaphrodite, a transvestite, and a transgender, and heard gurumai’s famous line “The Third World is not a place, it is a gender.”

He was given entry into the heart and lives of its inhabitants, and there was only one room he was never to step into; not the randikhana with its bunk beds, not the sickroom, but the room he would later be transported into the Third World - the operating chamber. It was there he would become a ‘chakka’.
In cricket, a chakka is a six; the ball clearing the boundary is the ultimate result for the batsman. Hijras are also called chakkas, because a chakka, unlike a Hijra, is a desired result.

[Karolina · Rating 1 out of 5]

I forced myself to finish this book. It reads like poverty porn with grotesque scenes for shock value & a protagonist I can't emphasize with on a basic human level because she just doesn't do anything while despising the world and anyone who tries to help.

The writer says he grew up near the area & the whole book reads like a bystander fantasy. I heard that he did not consult any trans people until editing a first draft, which supports that bystander feeling. It's not the darkness of the situation nor any doubt it happens this way, more that some scenes really read like they are tastelessly for shock. By the end of the book, talking about violating "arseholes" had me rolling my eyes.

3/4 of this book is a person bemoaning their life, seeing no connection between her choices and consequences until the end. Even when she's given the opportunity to escape her situation, she doesn't take it. She has a loyalty to her misery. Zoom out further, you realize you're listening to a middle age woman hate herself because of something that her father said when she was a little kid... If she did not help the parcel child at the end, I would have zero respect for her, but at least she did that. Any sympathy I built for her situation was knocked down by the fact her loyalty / duty to a few abusive people was an excuse to participate in ruining the lives of many children.

Further, the secondary characters felt hallow. The book was over-written and could've been cut down because half of it was repetitive. Hindi without any contextual description or definition did make the story harder to read, especially when some words I couldn't translate. I see a lot of potential in this story but it falls flat on those counts (over-writing, shock, passive unlikeable protagonist). I give it one star for what I did enjoy, which was the descriptions of the market & surrounding area. The Underwear Tree in particular was a nice metaphor. The metaphors for different emotions were also a strong point.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel, set in Mumbai, India, is about the sex trafficking of young girls.

The central character is Madhu, born a boy, who always knew he was a girl. Feeling rejected by his parents, he runs away to join a group of hijras, who are considered a third sex, neither men nor women. He is castrated and begins the life of a desired hijra prostitute. Now 40, she is no longer desirable and makes her living as a begger. She is still a member of this group of hijras and is a favored disciple of the leader. In the past, she has prepared newly arrived "parcels" (girls trafficked from rural areas)for their fate--to be "opened." This time, whether it is because of her age, the fact that the red light district is disappearing to developers, past memories, or whatever, she has trouble completing her task. I won't say anything about the surprising ending.

This one is very hard to read, in a way that is different from other hard to read books I have come across. There is layer after layer of exploitation, the complicity of families and friends, the uncaring attitude of the police. The daily life of a hijra prostitute, or any prostitute is made out of rape, suicide, assault, AIDS, and madness.

I felt intense compassion for "the parcel" and even for Madhu, in spite of her complicity, in spite of her belief that her method of breaking a parcel was kinder than the usual method of simply holding a girl down and having someone rape her.

Well, looking at the news, I don't hold out much hope that things have changed in India or elsewhere for children and adults who are trafficked.

The author now lives in Canada, but grew up right outside Kamathipura, the red light district that is the setting for this novel.

I'm glad I read this book, but I won't be rereading it, since it is another book that will stay with me for a very long time.

[Carolyn Walsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short listed for the Governor General's and Writer's Trust literary awards, I found the writing inconsistent and failed to connect on an emotional level until the conclusion. This is a dark, horrifying story about the sex workers in the red light district of Bombay (Mumbai). I expected gritty and some graphic content, but felt some vulgarities were thrown in when not necessary for shock value. Also the author included Indian words and phrases, making me stop to attempt to find translations or guess, maybe wrongly, from context. This did not make for a smooth read for me.

The main character was the transgendered Madhu, born a boy but dismayed his parents because of effeminate characteristics. The family lived near the red light district and it was inevitable that Madhu would meet a hijra (eunuch). Madhu eventually left home when a young teenager and went to live in a house with seven Hijra and its clan head, the 80 year old and ailing Gurumai. Madhu was castrated to become one, and became a much in demand sex worker. When her looks faded Madhu became a street beggar to support the head of the household.

The commanding and feared head of a brothel, Padma, ordered Madhu through Gurumai to prepare a 10 year old 'parcel' for her life as a child prostitute. The little girl had been sold by her family to sex traffickers and smuggled into India from a village in Nepal. These girls were kept in cages and raped and tortured to make them obedient and prepare them for their degrading future. Many went mad during this treatment and lost value for the brothels. Madhu decided to use less brutal psychological methods.A lot of Madhu's past life and disappointments come back to haunt her, especially her estrangement from her family.

[Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read fiction to fetch me truths about the lives of other people, especially those whose life experiences are very different to mine. And ‘The Parcel’ really delivered. Some of the actions of Madhu, the unforgettable protagonist, are casually vicious, while others are generous. Some are petty, others are almost operatic in scale. But there is always an underlying despair. Madhu lives in the brutal straightjacket world of Mumbai’s red light district - a ‘hijra’ who is neither male or female. In lesser hands I suppose this might have been a crushingly monochromatic novel. But the author paints a rich portrait of the area, and of the residents who are trapped within a precinct that is both a hellhole and a refuge for them, while a constant tide of customers sweep in and out. I especially liked the surprise switch of voice at one point in the novel - something that would normally annoy me. But in this case It seemed an important move. And the plot progression it deftly delivered in just a few pages, was just as nuanced and layered as the main story.

[Lauren Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Set amid the raucous swirl of Bombay’s Kamathipura Red Light District, The Parcel is a searing indictment of the sex trafficking industry and a compassionate portrait of a troubled but resilient community. In Madhu, the transgender, retired prostitute at the heart of the novel, Anosh Irani has created a powerful yet flawed character to steward the reader through difficult, often disturbing material. Her struggles – with her past, with the legacy she might leave behind – are rendered with honesty and grace. Harrowing, enraging, unexpectedly humorous, and also profoundly sad, The Parcel is a haunting work of fiction that illuminates the ways in which history, both political and personal, pervades the present day."

- 2016 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize Jury Lauren B. Davis, Trevor Ferguson, and Pasha Malla

[Maggie the Muskoka Library Mouse · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book took me way too long to read. It was hard for me to understand, since a glossary of terms was not included, and there were many unfamiliar words I would have liked to know so I could understand the context better. It used very crude language, which made sense based on the setting of the novel. It took me quite some time to become immune to the words used.

[ashley 👻 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book nearly traumatized me, in the best way possible. I can’t say I enjoyed a book about children being sex trafficked, but the writing style of this book was smart and tragic. Following Madhu, a transgender sex worker who now has “aged out” of the industry takes on a new gig - breaking in new girls, or ‘parcels’. And wow. That’s all i really want to say because I went into this blind with no expectations and it still blew me out of the water. The heartbreaking story behind Madhu - and the majority of other characters will have you flipping each page just to see what happens with their present storyline. A work of art.

[George Ilsley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a difficult book to rate because it was a painful book to read. It is an ordeal to read about children and sex trafficking, and the main character is complicated. The book is well written and so on, but—

[Ramya Jeyaraman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good novel about eunuchs and prostitutes in the red light area of Bombay. Startling, honest, and raw. Loved the writing through all the pages.

[Alycia]

Grimmest and most uncomfortable book I have read

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the parcel Madhu the main character is both a hero and a villan. Although this novel is incredibly challenging and possibly could be too challenging for some, overall it is a good example of the issue of values and how our environment impacts on our values and beliefs system. Madhu has accepted that the parcel was to become a prostitute but when she found out the entire plan this causes her to rebel. To many of us the fact that the parcel had been trafficked would have been enough, because it would be outside our belief and value system. However, because this was the world that Madhu knew since she was a young child and the world that had provided her with the love that she craved it was not outside of hers. Yes she exhibits being torn with parts of her world throughout the novel, but not to the same extent that the majority would be.

I read this novel in a day and it did leave me feeling quite low. However, for an analysis on value systems, culture within an organisation and leadership this book is actually very thought provoking and insightful. If you can survive the content of the book it can lead you with a lot of questions and observations, which to my mind makes this book a good read.

[Hamisoitil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Voici mon premier coup de cœur de cette nouvelle année 2018 qui vient de débuter. Ce roman est tout simplement somptueux, magistral... mais dur également. Dur dans le sens où certains passages sont assez difficiles à lire, avec la difficulté à comprendre le raisonnement de certaines personnes, et cette facilité à rejeter l’autre pour sa différence.

À travers ce roman et le regard de Madhu, on découvre une communauté qui se fait appeler les Hijras, quasi-inconnue de tous, à part là-bas en Inde, dans le quartier rouge de Bombay. Ce même nom est utilisé dans les pays musulmans (l’exil : partir d’ici pour un pays musulman afin d’accomplir sa foi).

En Inde, les Hijras, sont les exclus de la société indienne à cause de cette différence physique que nous appelons, nous en France, les transsexuels. Madhu est né garçon, mais tout chez lui est efféminé, à tel point que sa famille l’a rejeté. Il est vite pris en main par une autre Hijra, Gurumai, qui lui fait découvrir une nouvelle famille, son nouveau clan, ses semblables. Il aura bien évidemment des choix à faire très jeune comme se séparer de ses attributs sexuels, mais surtout, des choses imposées pour rester dans cette communauté : la prostitution. Il n’est plus il, mais elle, c’est mieux pour Madhu, même si, au final, elle est considérée comme un troisième sexe, un genre complètement vénéré, respecté par les Indiens, mais craint aussi, car être castré donne un pouvoir de fertilité selon les hindous... Pratiquement toute sa vie au sein de ce clan sera réduite à ce travail : attirer les hommes et coucher avec eux pour quelques roupies, et gérer quelques colis. Quand nous rentrons dans la tête de Madhu, elle a déjà la quarantaine bien tassée. Trop vielle, trop usée pour encore charmer... L’époque glorieuse est bien loin, maintenant... Jusqu’à ce qu’elle reçoit la visite de Padma, la tenancière, qui lui confie une mission : s’occuper d’un nouveau colis en provenance du Népal. Elle n’a pas d’autre choix que d’accepter sinon Madhu pourrait être punie, voire pire. Ce colis est une fillette vendue par sa famille et doit être préparée comme esclave sexuelle.

A Kamathipura, un colis mourait deux fois.
La première mort c'était l'ouverture. La seconde mort, plus douloureuse, c'était lorsque le colis comprenait qu'il avait été vendu par sa propre famille.

Cette partie-là est assez éprouvante dans le sens où l'on découvre tout le processus enclenché pour formater, briser de l'intérieur donc psychologiquement l'enfant afin de la rendre docile. Moi, personnellement, j'ai cru de toutes mes forces que Madhu allait changer la donne et pourtant, nous en sommes loin. Le travail, c'est le travail et elle le fait bien. J'avais quelques fois espoir vu le comportement qu'elle avait envers cette fillette. Et plus on avance, dans ce formatage avec ce colis, plus Madhu plonge dans ses propres souvenirs, dans sa famille, dans le rejet, la méchanceté...

C'est beau parce que l'écriture est belle, et que l'histoire, bien que douloureuse donne de l'espoir. Peut-être un tout petit peu. Anosh Irani a une plume vraiment remarquable. C'était presque poétique malgré un langage trop familier, voire vulgaire, par moments, mais n'oublions pas que nous sommes avec des prostitués, là. On ne peut pas faire mieux à part les représenter comme il se doit sans rien lésiner. Du coup, ça fuse, ça balance des vannes, c'est drôle.

Quant à la fin, je l'ai tout simplement adorée, avec un épilogue qui donne la parole à une certaine personne. Une très, très belle découverte qui m'a émue au plus haut point, et qui, je l'espère, vous aimerez à votre tour.

[Sarah Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cole encouraged me to try this- good thing I kept reading. I learned a thing or two and ended up really enjoying this book!

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the main reasons I read is to enter worlds unknown to me – physical worlds and more interior or personal ones. Anosh Irani’s novel The parcel meets this criterion perfectly. It is set in the Kamathipura red-light district of Bombay/Mumbai, and its main character is a eunuch, or hijra, named Madhu. Brought up as a boy, but never comfortable with that gender, teased and ostracised for his feminine walk, he joins the hijra world at 14 years of age. When we first meet her, though, she’s forty. This is a wonderful book about a morally complex character facing difficult decisions in a world where she has minimal power. For my full review, please check my blog https://whisperinggums.com/2017/10/19...

[Rhi · Rating 3 out of 5]

TW: book covers some really heavy themes: prostitution, sexual assault, sex trafficking, HIV, death, etc. It was a hard read at times due to the content, and occasionally it did read a bit like tragedy porn, but I really enjoyed reading it and it gave me a lot to think about. It was well written and the characters and world felt very rich and thoroughly explored.

[Mridula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkable storytelling, unforgettable characters, and strong prose. I would highly recommend this book.

[Scribe Publications]

The material can be desolating, but Irani generates plenty of black comic detail, evoking the vividness and moral ambiguity of the best Indian noir.’
Cameron Woodhead, The Saturday Age, Pick of the Week

The Parcel is a magnificent novel, with powerfully imagined characters who yanked me into their lives from the first page and would not let go of me until the last. It is bold, bawdy, tender, funny, sorrowful, all that life is made up of, and when I did reach the end I felt abandoned.
Anita Rau Badami, Author of The Hero’s Walk

Immersive and devastating, The Parcel is a searing tale of personal transformation amid toxic patriarchy. Madhu is at once pathetic and honourable, despicable and mighty — and imbued with such complexity, Irani brings dignity to all the transgender sex-workers of India.
Rajith Savandasa, Author of Ruins

Harrowing, enraging, unexpectedly humorous, and also profoundly sad, The Parcel is a haunting work of fiction that illuminates the ways in which history, both political and personal, pervades the present day.
Lauren B. David, Trevor Ferguson, and Pasha Malla (2016 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize Jury)

As engrossing as any thriller, Anosh Irani’s fourth novel offers readers so much more … The Parcel captivates with its vividly rendered characters and commands the reader’s attention by way of unnerving — and at times profoundly disturbing — portraiture of an abject group at the bottom of an already denigrated community at the heart of India’s booming financial hub, Mumbai … Irani’s compassion for these discarded souls, and the assertion of their essential dignity, renders them simultaneously touching and distressing.
Quill & Quire Starred Review

Part of the way this excellent book heals such a sprawling, horrifying reality is with beauty and religious depth.
The Globe and Mail

Deeply etched in man’s inhumanity to man and his capacity for both depravity and redemption.
Courier Mail

Irani’s portrait of Madhu and her community is tender and heroic, comic and tragic, dignified and destitute all at once.
The Skinny

The Parcel is such a fantastically moving novel … one of the most heartbreaking and fascinating novels I’ve read all year.
Lonesome Reader(blog)

Madhu is an ambiguous figure in many ways, and Irani delves deeply into her sad past among a world of outcasts. Pulling its readers’ sympathies in conflicting directions, The Parcel is a challenging novel, sharp and uncompromisingly written.
Sunday Herald