Bombay Fever (Sidin Vadukut) - Chronicle of a pandemic foretold

Rating: ⭐⭐

I read this much before Covid times, and once the pandemic started, it seemed like Bombay Fever was coming alive and becoming real. How could a virus travel across the world, make people ill, have a high mortality rate and spare no one, be written in this book and actually happen in a few years time? Did the author have a premonition or did he see the future? 

Coming back to the book and the story in it. It starts on an interesting note, with a strange illness gripping starting in an obscure part of the world and then spreading with lightening speed. From Sri Lanka, to Switzerland, criss-crossing the world and taking the city of Bombay to ransom, this virus has not been seen before and is literally devouring victims without giving them so much as a chance to say good bye to loved ones. (Sounds familiar eh?)Two young people get together with some ideas about how to control it after studying its patterns and try to save the city and the world. 

It is a good mix of fact and fiction. The author has a distinct, contemporary style of narration. You want to reach the end. It picks pace and elements of the story start to fall into place - a horror about the end of the world makes the mind anxious. However, the story loses the plot along the way. Too many characters and their back grounds and life stories, that don't have a relevance to the actual plot. The last part is a let-downer. The book begins with a bang but ends with a whimper.

For something that actually played out in real life, i was surprised that this book did not trend in 2020. A chance lost. This should have been re-released post covid and capitalised on the horror that was Covid.