3 Review(s)

Khushwant Singh's phenomenal success as a writer springs from a most unwriterly virtue: he writes for the reader, not for himself. He has the knack of seeming to speak directly to the reader, shrugging himself out of the confines of the written page. The kindly Deputy Commissioner, John Taylor, an Englishman who is sympathetic to Indians and understands the family predicament, offers them two alternatives: Sher Singh can either betray his comrades and save his life or else be hanged.Meanwhile, in Simla, Sher Singh wife and sister are involved in a parallel drama of their own with Madan, a revolutionary and a rake. I Shall Not Hear the Nightingale has been widely acclaimed as Khushwant Singh finest novel.