‘Love and hatred, romance and flirtations, fake and genuine . . . all so bluntly portrayed . . . a seemingly voluminous narrative written with stunning precision . . . Rahman Abbas’s novel [is] a masterpiece. The tongue-in-cheek humour succeeds in artistically camouflaging this harsh and audacious account concerning a community that is more known for sher-o-shairi’ -- Damodar Mauzo, winner of the Jnanpith Award, 2022

‘We warm instantly to Abdus-Salam Kalshekar, irate schoolteacher and insatiably amorous adventurer, who is the unlikely hero of Rahman Abbas’s novel On the Other Side. Kalshekar compels our attention as he negotiates his unconventional way through a conservative Bombay Muslim milieu, quarrelling with God and summing up his fellow human beings in cruel, impatient judgements. Books nest within books in Rahman’s adroitly constructed narrative, which takes the form of an extended report by an unnamed writer who is researching Kalshekar’s life, to write a novel about him. This maverick, meanwhile, is caught in the act of composing a multi-volume autobiographical testimony to his various love affairs and passionate encounters. Like a painter, Rahman vividly conjures up his protagonist’s ethos, with its intimate religious fears and bold secular transgressions. The red thread that stitches the book together is Rahman’s inquiry into the art of fiction, its role in contemporary Urdu literature and, by implication, in the India of the troubled present. On the Other Side is a loving, lavish, deeply compassionate portrait of an individual, a community and a society caught up in processes of rapid, disorienting transition’ -- Ranjit Hoskote, poet, cultural theorist and curator

‘An astonishingly modern voice, one that needs to be read to understand the crosscurrents in contemporary Urdu fiction’ -- Rakhshanda Jalil, writer, translator and literary historian

‘At its heart, On the Other Side is a love story-or, rather, a story about passion. Humorous and philosophical in equal measure, the strength of this book lies in its unabashed portrayal of human relationships’ -- Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, author of The Adivasi Will Not Dance

‘Told through the absorbing and poignant journey of self-discovery of Abdus-Salam in the city of Mumbai, On the Other Side is a searing tale of the complexities of human psyche and an exquisite treatment of the beguilingly engaging paradoxes of Indian Muslim life, a masterpiece of universal importance!’ -- Ashwani Kumar, author of Banaras and the Other

'This novel is bold on the grounds of its theme, and complex on the grounds of its narrative technique . . . Abdus-Salam’s character, despite his scattered temperament, dishevelled state and stained thoughts, makes a lasting impression on the readers’ minds by virtue of his peerless sacrifice. There is no doubt that amid the surge of ordinary novels, this novel is successful in creating its own space and identity as an unconventional, distinct work’ -- Salam Bin Razzaq, Sahitya Akademi Award-winning author

'Salam Bin Razzaq, Sahitya Akademi Award-winni