I must be missing something, because I was not a fan of this book.  I requested it because it was set in India, and I like to keep my reading list diverse in ethnicity as well as location of the story.  I wasn't a fan of the flow of the book, and many times I was confused as to what was going on within the pages.  This was just obviously not the book for me, although you may enjoy the book. 

I received a copy of the book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review of my own thoughts and opinions.

I sadly missed downloading this title before it was archived, but the delightful author so kindly reached out to me and sent me a PDF to review in return for an honest review.

FOr a beach loving true blue Aussie, I am fascinated by, and have a deep love and affection for India and its people, and I suspect this has come across in my reviews.. 

Having been unwell with COVID, I was excited to read this book, hoping it would be as enjoyable as some titles I have adored from Alka Joshi & Sujata Massey.   Unlike their works that are universal, this novel is less mainstream.  To be honest, I struggled a bit with some of the Indian words and terminology - I felt like I was watching a foreign movie with only 50% subtitles.  Regardless, I got through it, and would recommend it to anyone with an Indian background who would have a better understanding of the words than I did.

I really do appreciate the generosity of the author sharing his work with me, and apologise for posting my review so long after the books release.

The book and the story it's so new to me and I really enjoyed it. This story follows Tarun as the young man who wants to get married, but his condition (learning difficulties and epilepsy) makes his mother --and the rest of the family think he's unfit for marriage life and become a married man-- yet he still longing and yearning for the same opportunities as he saw his siblings and his friend marriage. Tarun is such an interesting and complex character. The stories that was set in different years makes us understand Tarun's childhood and upbringing and how it shaped Tarun into himself now. We also get to see his insight and thoughts regarding almost everything (to relationship, gender issues, social issues and events, etc). Though the core of the story is the love story, I think that this book is so much more than that. The story was beautifully written, I could feel the up and down of emotions just like how Tarun's journey and resilient through every up and down of his life. To me, the ending of the story is also satisfying.

I was entranced by this historical fiction novel set in 1950s India, in the aftermath of Partition. I thought that Anil Nijhawan portrayed the era particularly well so I could understand how that horrific national event was experienced on a personal level, and how forcibly moved people were still grieving their losses years later. 

Tarun himself is a complex character. This is a man with learning difficulties and epilepsy, both of which render him unsuitable for marriage in the eyes of his family who would make any arrangements on his behalf, yet Tarun himself yearns for that same opportunity. Having seen each of his siblings married off in turn and still being fobbed off whenever he attempts to raise the subject himself with his mother, makes for poignant scenes. Nijhawan sympathetically depicts Tarun's plight and, while there is a lot of humour within this novel, it does not target him specifically. As a outside observer, through reading this novel, I felt I could understand and empathise how uncomfortable Tarun made himself when he stepped out from his familiar surroundings.

These surroundings are so vividly shown to us that I could easily envisage the family hime and its neighbourhood as well as the individual family members who try to do their best for Tarun, but only from their own understandings of what he might achieve. Having grown up with him, they have formed fixed ideas of his capabilities which aren't necessarily accurate. It takes a serious misunderstanding and its consequences to change hearts and minds.

 Unfortunately, I did feel that The Bengal Tiger's Silent Roar ran out of steam at around this point which made its ending rather a rushed anticlimax for me. This was a shame as, for the majority of this novel I was fully engaged in Tarun's story. Those last few chapters aside though, this is a lovely story of personal determination and family bonds with memorable central characters.

Four stars!
The Bengal Tiger’s Silent Roar’ is a powerful, fast-paced, highly atmospheric novel with a passionate love story at its heart. It explores the widest range of human emotions.

This book that is  different in many ways and is departure from the run of the mill books currently being published. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book throughout. The story's main character is a young man called Tarun who wants to get married. He asks his mother to arrange a marriage for him, but his mother doesn't think he is capable of becoming a family man due to his abilities. It serves as a lesson to everyone that anything is possible and that it is possible for everyone. This book was written exceptionally well and details the culture of India. Recommended

DNF. I think it was a language issue? I was actually really disappointed because I wanted to try something new and outside of my normal reading characters wise.

This was a DNF for me. The writing style just did not pull me in, but rather stopped me from becoming engaged enough to finish the book. It was probably a very personal issue and someone else might absolutely love the style, it just was not my cup of tea.

This was a struggle to read because it felt like it was a poor translation version to English from an Indian language. It caused the sentences to be off cadence and jarring to connect to the story. 

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.