The century-old Hotel Calcutta run by an Englishman, is under threat from land sharks who want to raze it and build a shopping mall. As the staff stare at uncertain times, a monk turns up at the hotel and prophesies that the hotel will still stand only if a wall of stories can be built. Peter Dutta—the manager—though a little unsure, is ready to give it a shot and begins looking for a storyteller. A painter, who has just stepped into the bar, volunteers to tell the first story. Next is Peter’s turn. As the storytelling fever catches on, new guests arrive every day, among them a shifty-eyed producer of porn flicks, an American woman who hears the footsteps of a dead soldier in the corridor and finally an odd pair who pretend to be war historians. It seems they have all arrived there with a purpose. Will their stories protect the hotel or will it crumble under the sledgehammers of the land sharks.

MEDIA COVERAGE

`Sheer power of storytelling' The Telegraph

`A persuasive artist...Hotel Calcutta invites a hungry, urgent reading' Asian Review of Books

`A very innovative frame story' Journal of Commonwealth Literature

`An astounding work that interrogates the myriad surfaces of reality' Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi

`A dazzling "wall of stories" in Calcutta' The Sunday Guardian

`Very urban and 21st century' Sanjukta Dasgupta

`Chaudhuri tells us something also of the 'art' of the story.' Anu Kumar, The Thumb Print Magazine

`A web both classical and new.' Spark Magazine

`His themes reveal a deep fascination with human response to the extraordinary’ Helter Skelter