Neel Mukherjee: knows how to let a storyline simmer. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

Neel Mukherjees bleak and beautifully written third novel offers five loosely connected scenes from modern India. The extraordinary middle segment somehow gets us rooting for an abusive father who leaves his impoverished village to chance it as a beggar in the company of a bear cub that he reckons he can make dance. Less well developed are episodes involving an exploited construction worker and the homecoming of a Kolkata-born lecturer from the US. Mukherjee sometimes uses death as a short cut to emotional impact but he also knows how to let a storyline simmer, as when a London publisher, visiting his parents in Bombay, defies etiquette to pry into the lives of their cooks. Evoking VS Naipauls Booker-winning In a Free State (a probable structural model), Mukherjees title hints at the company hes aiming for; I wouldnt bet against him being in the running for this years prize.

A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee is published by Chatto & Windus (16.99). To order a copy for 12.74 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over 10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of 1.99

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A State of Freedom by Neel Mukherjee review a Booker contender ... - The Guardian