New Delhi, April 5 -- Ranbir Sidhu's new novel is told by an unlikely narrator, an unnamed hustler and petty criminal living in Delhi, who spouts Dante and Shakespeare at opportune moments. In fact, the Bard makes an appearance in the oddest of times in the book. Early on in Night in Delhi, Mr Harbans Singh Ahluwalia Esq. (called "The Big Man" by the narrator), who is later revealed to be the mastermind behind a scamming business, decides to call the narrator Ariel and his cross-dressing bar-singer male lover Jaggi, Caliban.

The peculiarity of the meeting between this trio is heightened by the fact that it takes place inside a gurudwara, at the funeral of Singh's father no less, where the two boys have sneaked in to steal and to eat the ...