Compassionate in its telling ... Chakrabarti explores his flawed, bewildered characters’ fine-grained emotional shifts when confronted with confusing, violent political movements ... A Play for the End of the World meditates on conundrums of agency that, unfortunately, are still relevant to artists and writers. Can art truly matter in a time of intense upheaval and turmoil over the failures and force of a government? ... [The novel] seems to ask us: Are you struggling in this moment? And it answers, here, let me help you bear this.
Chakrabarti’s novel is realistic and tentative and breathtakingly poignant, with a payoff that’s more than worth the trip if you have the heart to withstand it.
Chakrabarti’s absorbing debut is an ode to art, friendship, and love ... Chakrabarti’s characters are sharply drawn and alluring, and Jaryk’s survivor’s guilt is palpable. At its heart this is a love story, and literary readers not used to cheering for a happy ending may find themselves doing just that.
[An] ambitious debut ... While some of the narratives are inevitably more compelling than others, the complex structure generally works ... The main characters of this novel are complex people with interesting mixes of traits ... Chakrabarti, who was born in India, usually manages to keep all his narrative balls in the air, though he gets tangled too much in the weeds of the Bangladesh war and the Maoist insurgency. A Play for the End of the World deserves credit for finding common humanity among three very different cultures, while telling a compelling story.
[An] arresting debut ... Chakrabarti moves the reader seamlessly through the nonlinear narrative and brilliantly conveys Jaryk’s survivor’s guilt from WWII, which is doubled by the loss of Misha. This trenchant story will move readers.
Chakrabarti deftly explores the weight of history, a touching love story, and Jaryk’s heart-wrenching survivor’s guilt. Woven throughout is the play that teaches you not about life, but about dying ... The narrative struggles under the weight of its responsibility to these compelling themes and shortchanges a few, such as the Communist uprising, while Jaryk’s internal struggles and love for Lucy stretch on for too long. An impressive if occasionally labored debut.
