Revenge is known to be a dish best served cold, but it is even better, as the characters in this book believe, when it is cooked by chefs who cannot be traced! Jewellery vanishes in full daylight – but by whose hands, we do not know!
When that jewellery is recovered, nobody is told about it because revenge rears its head again. Old scores remain unsettled, and the jewellery is left unreturned, keeping the cauldron of revenge boiling.
Meanwhile, plotters go about their business, seeking revenge that is imagined rather than real, from borrowers who have already repaid their loans many times over in interest. Is it revenge, or is it pure greed? The line between the two may have blurred irreversibly.
Most often, though not always, the revenge the characters experience come wrapped in affection and closeness, making it even more lethal and harder to distinguish. A character lies bloodied on the highway in a disastrous car accident – but was it an accident to begin with?
For reasons ranging from envy to long-buried resentments, from the loves of the past to the estrangements of the present, the characters seek revenge in many ways, deflecting their guilt onto others. A doctor takes charge of her friend on the brink of death– but does she truly mean to heal?
Revenge turns gory when hired killers shoot their target point –blank, but the motive is not immediately clear – is it the sacks of cash found soon afterwards, or something far more sinister?
Revenge permeates both the characters and the air in this novel, which the reader will sense very soon. She will also notice that every time a character seeks revenge, she digs two graves, one of them her own.
Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief captures these tangled human emotions with startling intensity. The story travels across the lives of the rich and the poor, the powerful and the helpless, showing how greed, ambition, and resentment drive people to the brink. Every character hides a secret, and every decision has consequences that ripple far beyond their control. The thief may wear the cloak of respectability, while the wealthy may turn out to be morally bankrupt, making it impossible to separate the guilty from the innocent.
Through betrayal, survival, and shifting loyalties, the novel underlines how revenge can consume both hunter and hunted. It forces the reader to confront an uncomfortable truth: wealth or poverty are mere disguises, but what truly shapes destiny are the choices made when envy, desire, and vengeance collide. In the end, justice and revenge merge into a spiral that spares no one.
Get your copy now - Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief Here
About the Author
Sarojesh Mukerjee is the author of the well-received The Life and Times of David Hare: First Secular Educationist of India, published in 2023. He has also written a satirical novella, The Ascent, published in 2024. This is his third book.
He is the founder of The Cambridge School in Calcutta where he teaches Economics at Advanced Levels and, occasionally, International History. He lives in Calcutta with his family, including Pongo, Bingo and Bertie.
Comments