Mr. Niyogi's Last Audit (2024) by S.N. Rao #Netgalley

Thanks to Copperplate and NetGalley for providing me review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Beginnings on Fridays (hosted by Rose City Reader):

I was feeling cold, so I opened my eyes to find myself in a cold room. It was unfamiliar room, and I could not recollect how I got here. The room was dimly lit. I did not know what time it was; the curtains were open, and it was dark outside. I needed to pee. I took a deep breath, turned onto my left side and pushed myself into a sitting position. My arms trembled with the effort, and I felt a pain in my left shoulder.

👴🏼In his 77 years of age, Mr. Vikram Niyogi is struggling with Parkinson's - the same disease my late father had had in the last years of his life (he passed away last year). That was the main reason I picked up this novel in the first place, a story I could surely well relate. Moreover, my father was also an accountant like Mr. Niyogi, before retirement. And it is a way, I hoped, to better understand the extend of what my father must have had through - something I hadn't fully appreciated at that time, as those were quite distressing times for me and my mother.

👴🏼 Mr. Niyogi is a retired accountant for an airline company of Bengaluru branch, India. He had been an invaluable member of the enterprise before retirement. Now that Parkinson's is eating away his movement as well as his dignity - causing him more dependent on his wife, daughter, and a caretaker - he felt more desperate to be useful in life. But what can he possibly do, when, even for basic activities like eating, walking, and peeing he can't do without help?

👴🏼 The answer came in two ways. His former company faced a serious money embezzlement, and only a senior accountant like Mr. Niyogi could trace it. Then his daughter Archana has a friend, whose son was hopelessly stranded on a small island in Maldives with 200 other miners, when their employer went bankrupt, with no one able to help as most institutions are focusing in recovery after Covid-19. It should not be of Mr. Niyogi's concern, however he starts hearing the stranded young man's voice, urging him to send for help. But what can he do? Maybe if he helps Saran airlines in his last audit for them, they in turn might be persuaded to send boats for the stranded miners. But that would be an impossible task for Mr. Niyogi - or is it?

👴🏼 I applauded S.N Rao for the writing. Either he has been dealing with Parkinson's patient before, or he has done a thorough research; painful dealing with Parkinson's disease were captured vividly throughout the story and become one of the strong points of this book. Mr. Niyogi's meal, for instance, was pictured in minutest detail from preparing the liquified food to the injection to his feeding tube. Or the procedure of various treatments given to Mr. Niyogi to ease his rigid muscles, were described in chronological detail that I felt like being trained as a nurse. It might bored some of you who dislikes medical or uncomfortable scenes in a book, but it's interesting if you want to know more about Parkinson's disease, and felt relatable for you who have dealt with it.

Quoted for Friday56 hosted by Head Full of Books :

I was nervous. Ever since I got Parkinson's, I hadn't been confident or sure of myself. I was not sure how I would do here, but I decided to give it a try nonetheless.

👴🏼 Most of Mr. Niyogi's symptoms were also experienced by my father. Once he came back from a grocery store (he went alone as he could still walk at that time) with treacle of blood flowing from his eyebrow, without remembering what had happened. I think he had experienced a combination of one-second blackout and muscle-freeze. Luckily it happened right in front of the store's glass door, so his forehead bumped the door instead of completely falling over. We never let him go alone after that incident.

👴🏼 Hallucination had also happened once to my father, he saw flowers everywhere, on the wall, on the bed, on the floor. He's really freaked out that he's going crazy, but luckily it never happened again. Mr. Niyogi's hearing the minor's voice is hallucination, by the way, if you've been wondering. My father also had throat muscle rigidity that his diet was limited to only very soft porridge and steamed egg custard (chawanmushi) or soft tofu during his last year. Thank God, except during his last days in the ICU, he never needed feeding tube. I can't imagine the trouble and cost we'd have to bear if it happened.

👴🏼 All in all, it is an intriguing novella about struggles and resilience, sacrifices and humanity, with an elaborate theme of Parkinson's disease. The writing style is a bit too formal to be an entertaining novel, but other than that it has quite a perfect balance on all sides.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2


** Mr. Niyogi's Last Audit has been published in August 15th, 2024 **