Herbert (Bengali)

Herbert is Nabarun Bhattacharya’s most famous Bengali novel written in 1994. The story of the book revolves around the protagonist Herbert Sarkar. He is a 40-year-old queer person who believes that he has the capability to talk to the dead people. Herbert starts a business with the name Dialogues with the Dead, but has to face the consequences when an international organization declares him fraud. He commits suicide after his reputation gets stained, and the main story starts after this incident. This Sahitya Akademi Award-winning novel has been adapted into a very famous movie in 2005 by Suman Mukhopadhyay. The novel also got awarded the Bankim prize and Narasingha Das prize.

Nabarun Bhattacharya, born on June 23, 1948, is a Bengali writer, who is well known for his anarchic novel Herbert. Other works written by him include Mausoleum, Srestha Galpa, and Lubdhak. He is also a poet and works as the chief editor of a Bengali magazine called Bhashabandhan. He studied English from the Calcutta University, and then he started his professional career with a Soviet news agency. He also worked as the editor of several journals and magazines. Bhattacharya’s writing style is influenced by the 19th century Victorian sensibility. His writing style goes against the middle class ethos of the Bengali society, and he talks mostly about the lower strata of existence.