Age of Vice

August 1, 2022

Kapoor launches a trilogy about the wealthy, corrupt Wadia family of New Delhi, linking the stories of playboy Sunny, who wants to supersede his father; cautious servant Ajay, from a shockingly destitute background; and ambitious journalist Neda, who becomes involved with Sunny. A big hit at Frankfurt in 2019, this saga sold immediately to 20 countries worldwide and is slated for a Fox TV series. Indian-born-, -raised, and -educated Kapoor worked in New Delhi as a journalist and now lives in Portugal.

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Starred review from September 19, 2022
In Kapoor’s searing portrait of India at the turn of the 21st century (after Bad Character), finely wrought characters go to great lengths to escape the bonds into which they were born. Ajay, from a desperately poor family and sold into servitude by his mother at eight in 1991, begins working for Sunny Wadia, an unhappy playboy and scion of a powerful family, in 2001. Sunny’s father, Bunty, and mysterious uncle Vicky hold sway over whole swaths of the Indian economy and political landscape. Neda Kapur is a cynical journalist first drawn to Sunny by a corruption story she is writing, but is soon caught in the vortex of Sunny’s lavish lifestyle of endless parties, drugs, and conspicuous consumption facilitated by the ever-present Ajay. Sunny dreams of creating new cities and carving a new path for himself, but he is emasculated by his father’s hold on the family’s empire. As Sunny and his friends’ behavior becomes increasingly reckless, Ajay is made a scapegoat for a shocking fatal car accident, and Neda witnesses in full the ethical morass upon which the Wadias’ success is built. Kapoor’s violent and bitter story is deeply addictive; this spellbinder would be easy to devour in one big gulp, but it’s worth savoring for Neda’s uncompromising take on what she terms India’s “losing age, the age of vice.” The author possesses a talent great enough to match the massive scope of her subject.

November 15, 2022
A poor boy joins up with a ruthless rich family in this fast-paced thriller. Kapoor's sprawling second novel opens with a horrific scene: five day laborers lying dead on a New Delhi street, killed after being struck by a Mercedes early in the morning. When the police arrive, they find Ajay, a young man, at the wheel, an empty bottle of scotch nearby. Ajay, we learn, comes from a "poor, less than poor" family in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh; his family are members of a socially disadvantaged caste. When he was a boy, his father was beaten to death by a group of strongmen; his mother sold him to pay for the money she borrowed for her husband's medical bills. Ajay worked for the farmer who bought him until the man died, then found work in a backpacker cafe where he met Sunny Wadia, the de facto leader of a band of "young, rich, and glamorous Indians, not afraid to show it, not afraid to slum it, welcome everywhere, welcomed by themselves." Sunny, a flashy playboy, offers Ajay a job working for him in Delhi; the young man accepts, becoming a valet, butler, bodyguard: "the beating heart of Sunny's world. Wordless, faceless, content." Ajay soon learns that the Wadia family, entrenched in a feud, is more sinister and dangerous than he thought and that he's being made to take the fall for a crime he didn't commit. Kapoor switches points of view and timelines throughout the book to great effect; it doesn't take long for the reader to become invested in the Mario Puzo-esque drama of the Wadia family and their associates. Her dialogue shines, and although the novel is a bit too long, it's certainly gripping. Fans of crime novels will find much to admire in this quite entertaining book. A bit too long-winded but a whole lot of fun.

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Starred review from October 15, 2022
From all indications, it might appear that we are living in the age of vice, the Kali Yuga that ancient Hindu texts speak of. Accordingly, when a speeding Mercedes plows over five sleeping roadside dwellers late at night in New Delhi, the blame for the horrific tragedy falls on the driver. But Ajay is simply a puppet, a chauffeur who sits only slightly higher on the food chain than the people he inadvertently killed. Opening in medias res from this tragedy, Kapoor (A Bad Character, 2015) spins a dizzying ride, painting an India where money is the only religion. The story's anchor is the flamboyant Sunny, the scion of the ultrawealthy Wadia family. In Sunny's clash with his powerful father, journalist Neda Kapur ends up steamrolled as collateral. Weaving the backstories of Ajay, Neda, and Sunny together, Kapoor's frenetic and colorful novel highlights the new global pecking order, one forged by capitalism, in which the rich always win. In the age of vice, as Neda says, "the wheel will keep turning toward the dissolution that will swallow us all." But as this gripping tale shows, even the weakest deserve one last gasp of dignity.

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Starred review from January 1, 2023

The action in Kapoor's (A Bad Character) extraordinary India-set second novel stretches across a decade and a half: the good guys never win, the corrupt never lose. When he was eight, Ajay's mother sold him to pay a debt. An adult now, he works for golden boy Sunny Wadia, son of Bunty, head of the Wadia crime gang. One time only, on the advice of his girlfriend Neda, Sunny defies his father. His father storms into the house, tosses Sunny in the pool, and orders his thugs to trash Sunny's home, destroying all the treasures on display that showcase Sunny's refined sensibilities. Neda flees, and an isolated Sunny is put on a short leash. When Gautham, heir to another crime family, crashes his car one night while roaring drunk, leaving five dead behind, Sunny seizes the moment to photograph him. Then he orders Ajay to confess in Gautham's place. Ajay goes to prison; Gautham is owned by the Wadias. By the end of this grim tale, Sunny is a broken hulk, fat, stoned, and drunk. He doesn't resist his father now--he can't--but what does he have to offer him? VERDICT Impossible to put down; Kapoor is the real thing.--David Keymer

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.