Zero Percentile by Neeraj Chhibba

Title: Zero Percentile
Author: Neeraj Chhibba
Genre: Adult Fiction
Source: Author
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

My thoughts:

Zero Percentile is the story of a guy called Pankaj from Delhi, India. The story begins in 1997 Russia where Pankaj is about to board a flight to India and waiting for one phone call that could change the course of his life. This is just a 2 page prologue after which the story shifts to Delhi and then for the first half of the book we are taken through Pankaj’s childhood.

Although I think the childhood part was quite stretched out with unnecessary details, I do think it was necessary. Even though the tagline of the book says ‘Missed IIT Kissed Rusia’, IIT is a very small part of this book. Just because he misses the IIT exam due to an incident, he lands up in Russia for an engineering degree. After that it’s about his experiences in Russia.

What I liked the most about the book was the information it provided. I haven’t read a lot of books set in Russia and that’s why the setting of this book was very refreshing. I got to know a LOT of things about Russia and the education system back in the 1990’s.  Along with that he’s also managed to insert quite a bit of  Russian history in the book.

This book reads like a Bollywood Movie, a potboiler from beginning to end. It’s a book for the masses and I would safely put it into the ‘Chetan Bhagat’ category. It’s a quick read and it also costs less. The writing does need work but overall it was entertaining.

Note: If you happen to get the book, please skip the summary at the back of the book, it gives away almost all the turning points of the book.

This is my first book for the South Asian Author’s Challenge.