CDS (I) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 83 of 120

Correct — B, Dominique Lapierre. 'City of Joy' is Lapierre's book, published in 1985 and written in French as 'La Cité de la joie'. It is set in Kolkata, in a slum modelled on the Pilkhana neighbourhood of Howrah, which the book calls Anand Nagar — the city of joy of the title. Lapierre wrote it alone; the confusion the question plays on is that he had earlier co-written a string of best-sellers with Larry Collins, including 'Freedom at Midnight' on the transfer of power in 1947. He gave a large share of the book's royalties to work in the Kolkata slums.

• (a)Larry Collins — Larry Collins was Lapierre's regular co-author, and their joint books on India are far better known to Indian readers than Lapierre's solo work. But 'City of Joy' is not one of the collaborations.
• (c)Rudyard Kipling — Rudyard Kipling died in 1936, half a century before this book. He wrote about India, and about Calcutta in 'The City of Dreadful Night', which is close enough in flavour to catch a careless reader.
• (d)Mark Tully — Mark Tully is the long-serving BBC correspondent in Delhi and the author of books on India such as 'No Full Stops in India', but not of this one.

Dominique Lapierre was a French writer whose books on India reached a very wide readership, both in collaboration with the American journalist Larry Collins and on his own. 'City of Joy' follows a rickshaw-puller, a French priest and an American doctor in a Kolkata slum, and it was filmed in 1992. Lapierre's Indian royalties funded health and education work in and around the city.

The item is decided by knowing which of Lapierre's books were joint and which were solo. The pairing 'Collins and Lapierre' is so familiar from 'Freedom at Midnight' that many candidates reach for Collins automatically, which is why he is placed first among the options. Two anchors help. The book is originally French, which rules out the two English-language writers on the list and points at the French author. And the setting is Kolkata, which is where Lapierre's own philanthropic work was concentrated. Careful with the title in an examination: the novel is commonly printed as 'The City of Joy' as well as 'City of Joy', and the 1992 film uses the definite article — the paper here prints it without.

• 'City of Joy' was written by Dominique Lapierre and published in 1985, originally in French as 'La Cité de la joie'.
• It is set in a Kolkata slum modelled on Pilkhana in Howrah, called Anand Nagar in the book.
• Lapierre and Larry Collins co-wrote 'Freedom at Midnight' and other best-sellers, but this book is Lapierre's alone.
• The novel was adapted into a film in 1992.
• Lapierre directed much of the book's income to health and education work in and around Kolkata.

• Reaching for Larry Collins because the pairing with Lapierre is so familiar.
• Assuming a book about Kolkata by a foreigner must be by a British writer.
• Confusing this book with Kipling's Calcutta writing.

As a plain author-to-book item, sometimes inverted into which-book-did-X-write, with a frequent co-author placed among the options.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  'Freedom at Midnight' was written by

  • (a)Dominique Lapierre alone
  • (b)Larry Collins alone
  • (c)Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre
  • (d)Mark Tully

  Answer(c) Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre — it is the best known of their collaborations, on the transfer of power in 1947.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The slum called Anand Nagar in 'City of Joy' is modelled on a neighbourhood in which city?

  • (a)Mumbai
  • (b)Kolkata
  • (c)Chennai
  • (d)Delhi

  Answer(b) Kolkata — the model is Pilkhana in Howrah, across the Hooghly from the city.