The Spider

The Spider is a novel about mercenaries and myth set amid the political turmoil of Bengal. In eastern India's largely undocumented world of political violence, Qadir the Spider is a mythic figure, both a killer and a seducer, known for the assassinations and affairs he carries out across the region.

His eldest son, Rahim, is the newest recruit. At thirteen, he is already a killer and, like his father, passes the time by killing, farming and getting high while battles rage around him. In this world, people only follow orders, mutilation is their sole form of expression, and violence is the only real autonomy they have in the power struggles of interior Bengal.

After his first year in the field, Rahim is groomed by his father to carry on the mercenary clan's ways and starts to confront the legends surrounding the Spider. While wandering the strange, spectral forests around the town, he happens upon two travelling musicians, and the meeting makes him doubt the killings that shape his life. As he looks for answers, he is gradually forced to face who his father really is and who he knows he will become.

Aurko Maitra's novel looks at inherited violence and identity in a volatile Bengal, with parallels to present-day conflicts. It questions ideas of autonomy and survival amid chaos and explores the effects of political violence, legacy and violence passed between generations.