MAP AND THE SCISSORS Paperback

The Map and the Scissors by Amit Majmudar is a compelling historical novel that vividly reimagines the pivotal origins of modern South Asia through the contrasting lives of two London-educated lawyers: Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Winner of the Tata Literature Live! Book of the Year (Fiction) 2022, the book delves into their intertwined yet ultimately divergent paths, exploring how their intense and inflexible personalities led to the creation of two nations instead of one. Majmudar masterfully brings to life the intellectual duels, personal ambitions, and profound ideological differences between these "mirror-image rivals" who both dreamt of freedom, yet in catastrophically incompatible ways, leading to the anguish and bloody birth of India and Pakistan.