Railsong: A Novel
Rahul Bhattacharya
Feb 2026 · Bloomsbury US Audio · Narrated by Sudha Bhuchar
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17 hr 42 min
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About this audiobook
Bloomsbury presents Railsong by Rahul Bhattacharya, read by Sudha Bhuchar.
"Magnificent . . . I would follow Miss Chitol to the ends of the earth." —Kamila Shamsie
"Profoundly tender [and] vigorously alive to the currents of national change." —Megha Majumdar
From the Man Asian Prize–shortlisted author Rahul Bhattacharya, a breathtaking novel about a woman forging a life for herself on the railways of twentieth-century India.
In a country rapidly modernizing after independence, Animesh Chitol bends his caste title into a quirky surname, moves his family to the brand-new township of Bhombalpur Railway Workshop, and throws in his lot with an optimism-filled future. Then tragedy strikes. Into the empty space left by his wife’s passing grows Chitol's only daughter, the middle child, Charu. As India moves from steam to diesel locomotives, through a great strike and state repression, Charu flees to Bombay, alarmed by her narrow prospects. There she quests for the means to live on her own terms.
Amidst the everyday discriminations of modern India, Charu forges her own destiny, becoming a railway woman and census enumerator who keeps her heart open—sometimes guilelessly—to her country's vast possibility. Sweeping, elegiac, and at times wonderfully comic, Railsong is one woman’s coming of age and a beautifully complex love letter to the finely wrought world of the Indian railways and a country beset by religious and political upheaval.
"Magnificent . . . I would follow Miss Chitol to the ends of the earth." —Kamila Shamsie
"Profoundly tender [and] vigorously alive to the currents of national change." —Megha Majumdar
From the Man Asian Prize–shortlisted author Rahul Bhattacharya, a breathtaking novel about a woman forging a life for herself on the railways of twentieth-century India.
In a country rapidly modernizing after independence, Animesh Chitol bends his caste title into a quirky surname, moves his family to the brand-new township of Bhombalpur Railway Workshop, and throws in his lot with an optimism-filled future. Then tragedy strikes. Into the empty space left by his wife’s passing grows Chitol's only daughter, the middle child, Charu. As India moves from steam to diesel locomotives, through a great strike and state repression, Charu flees to Bombay, alarmed by her narrow prospects. There she quests for the means to live on her own terms.
Amidst the everyday discriminations of modern India, Charu forges her own destiny, becoming a railway woman and census enumerator who keeps her heart open—sometimes guilelessly—to her country's vast possibility. Sweeping, elegiac, and at times wonderfully comic, Railsong is one woman’s coming of age and a beautifully complex love letter to the finely wrought world of the Indian railways and a country beset by religious and political upheaval.
Bloomsbury presents Railsong by Rahul Bhattacharya, read by Sudha Bhuchar.
"Magnificent . . . I would follow Miss Chitol to the ends of the earth." —Kamila Shamsie
"Profoundly tender [and] vigorously alive to the currents of national change." —Megha Majumdar
From the Man Asian Prize–shortliste...
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About the author
Rahul Bhattacharya is a writer, journalist, and editor. His first novel, The Sly Company of People Who Care, won the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize. Pundits from Pakistan, his first book, was a Wisden Cricketer top ten cricket book of all time. He was born in Bombay and lives in Delhi with his wife and two daughters.
Rahul Bhattacharya is a writer, journalist, and editor. His first novel, The Sly Company of People Who Care, won the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize. Pundits from Pakistan, his first book, was a Wisden Cricketer top ten cricket book ...
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