The Village [Jun 18, 2012] Nikita Lalwani

After a long journey from england, ray bhullar arrives early on a winter morning at the gates of the indian village which will be her home for the next three months. The door of the hut she will share with serena, her english co-worker, is a loose sheet of metal, the windows holes in the walls. Outside, village life apparently goes on as normal and yet, the village is anything but normal. It is a village of murderers, an open prison. When ray and her crew take up residence, to observe and to make a film, it seems that they are innocent visitors into a violent world, on a mission to hold the place up to viewers as the ultimate example of tolerance. But the longer the visitors stay and their need for drama intensifies, the line between innocence and guilt begins to blur and an unexpected and terrifying new kind of cruelty emerges. A mesmerising and heartfelt tale of manipulation and personal morality, nikita lalwani's new novel brilliantly exposes how truly frail our moral judgement can