“Visions of a Summer Past” is the debut novel of Avishek Gupta. I have read Avishek’s short stories in the past and started reading his debut novel with certain expectations. The good news is that, his writing exceeds all my expectations. The story chronicles the journey of a family across five generations, starting in the 40’s with the Partition as backdrop and ending in this decade. Selecting this as the premise of one’s debut novel, in itself, proves that Avishek is a gutsy author. When your canvas is so wide and varied, you need to not only develop characters that are true to the times and spaces they inhabit, but you also sign up for exploring the changing social, political and cultural milieu of a nation or nations as your story traverses through time. And this is where Avishek excels. In his novel, you see the gradual progression of means of livelihood – farmers and landlords, independent practitioners of law, entrepreneurs, public servants, and practitioners of c
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