The plait of these stories is woven together beautifully with eloquent prose and well-rounded characters.

Choice by Neel Murkherjee is a book of three contemporary interlinked short stories. Thanks to W W Norton & Co for providing an eARC copy in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley.

I have previously read this author's other interlinked short story collection The Lives of Others and found it excellent. The dancing bear on a rope image has stayed with me all these years. With Choice, the tentpole titular story is of an anguished man Anush living in London with his husband Luke and two twin adopted children. Anush grapples with issues that consume his being and mind: climate change, animal cruelty in meat production, racism, homophobia, capitalism among others. He constantly is at loggerheads with Luke who is an economist, accusing Luke of valuing time and people in purely economic units. Whether it's in the domestic domain or in his career in publishing and extending to the state of the world, Anush attempts to make small changes which seem futile, fueling his sense of despair and rage. This and the other stories question how much agency or choice do we really have to effect a change in the world? What is the right or moral choice in a 'wrong' world?

The second story is under the umbrella of the first, the reader can deduce this is the fictional story by one of the authors called MN Opie that Anush had signed. In the first story, Anush had lamented the gatekeeping in the publishing industry and how commercial it's become. On reading this story, he had marvelled about how the myriad of choice decisions by the main character leads to greater reflections about the morality behind rationale. Emily, the protagonist, gets into a rideshare taxi late one night tipsy and the driver careens into an accident along the way. This incident actually mirrors a similar situation my spouse and I faced once coming home from the airport one late night, the difference being that we didn't hit anything but it was close. The considerations that Emily has were ours as well: if we report him, an obvious newcomer, he may lose his livelihood or worse, but his reckless driving is a danger. In Emily's case, that fear came to fruition so the decision whether to report more urgent. As she unexpectedly comes to know of the driver's circumstances, what is the right thing to do becomes muddied.

The third story transports us to rural India, linked to the first story by Anush asking an Economics professor of Indian heritage to write a story about their randomized experiment of gifting cows to poor villagers to lift them out of poverty. This is ostensibly the case study the professor wrote where the experiment went terribly awry. Good intentions, hell. In some ways, the two latter stories are Matryoshka dolls nestled within the first. While the first two stories have protagonists living in first world comfort and working in white collar 'ivory tower' jobs, the third story with Sabita and her family is the most affecting. I don't know if this is what the author wants us to consider but to me, the third story showed that choice can sometimes be an illusion. Determinations of class and the birth lottery, geography decide a lot. The more upwardly mobile we are, the more choices become open. I would love to quote sections from the book, however the publisher has requested that we check them against a published finished copy which I am in the process of getting hold of.

Overall, I found this to be thought-provoking and biting. It aligns with what I think the majority of us struggle with: how to do the 'right' thing, what is the right thing for us and the planet, how fortunate some of us are to have the luxury of choice, how much difference do our choices make within the big picture, what we have to give up to embark on that path.

Neel Mukherjee is one of my favorite writers. You never get the same thing twice. His latest Choice is three seprate novella in one at least that is how I would describe. They all deal with topics of race, neoliberalism, justice. The first one was my favorite of the three because it dealt with the inside world of publishing and what certain readers and editors expect from it. It shows the prejudices that are there from both parties. The second and third parts deal with the choices we make in life and how they affect us and th world. While this book may not be for everyone and there may sections that you may like and another reader won't it goes perectly with the title and Choices. No matter what you feel you won't regret pick picking up this book and giving it a chance of opening your mind and being exposed to exquisite writing. It's a great pick for a book club because there is so mjch to discuss tin these three stories. Thanks to Netgalley and W.W. Norton for the read.

3.5 stars-Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book, releasing in April 2nd 2024!

I originally requested an ARC of this because of a positive comment by Hanya Yanagihara, whose writing I like. This book is essentially three novellas (barely) tied together by a short mention in the first story, all of which deal with themes of morality and the choices we make, as well as the dangers of "well-meaning" white (neo)liberalism. I did like that overarching connection and the idea that even when we make what seems to be the most moral choice possible, because we don't exist in a laboratory but in a living society there will often be negative consequences that accompany the good of that choice. Mukherjee's writing is beautiful. My biggest issue in this book is with the characters, who sometimes felt like almost cartoonish versions of what they were supposed to represent. Part 1 was the worst for this, Part 2 was slightly better, and Part 3 had the least of this and was definitely my favorite of the three stories.

I have, in the past, been intensely moved, and informed, by this author’s fine fiction. Not so much on this occasion. Instead, I felt slightly hectored by the didactic nature of the work. Yes, it’s relevant and insightful on the complex issues of our day, but it also had the feel of a sampler or text book. I will look forward to what follows.