The Last Dragoners of Bowbazar

3.5 stars — A beautifully written coming-of-age novella about Ru, a migrant from a land of dragons who moves to India, but feels like an outsider due to his mysterious heritage he knows little about.

This feels like a novella about identity, culture and immigration. I like that this is more-or-less a realistic story of a boy stuck between two cultures, but one of the cultures happens to be one infused with dragons and magic. But instead of having traditional fantasy tropes of chosen ones and the like, this is very much grounded in reality, of a boy that wants to live in the present, but also wants to honour his family's culture.

I also learnt a new term called Third culture kid. Not mentioned in the book itself, but I think Ru can certainly be considered a third culture kid. The Dragoneer culture and the Indian culture intertwine.

The greatest success of this novella is the prose. It's beautifully written with this dream-like, evanescent quality, merging realism with the fantastical. The plot isn't always clear, and I struggled at times understanding its magic system, but there is this daydream wonder that kept me entertained. The relationship between Alice and Ru also feels endearing, a first love that ends, but not in a dramatic way, more a coming-of-age first love sort of deal. A wonderfully written book with some interesting ideas.