Books

EVERYTHING THE LIGHT TOUCHES (2022)

A novel like none other – Amitav Ghosh

This is a book that needed to be written, that tells true things, and is entirely its own being – Robert Macfarlane

For Shai, lost and drifting, a visit to her hometown in India’s Northeast offers the possibility of new ways of living.

For Evelyn, a Cambridge student, scientific inspiration guides her to the forests of the lower Himalayas and a world she has only read about.

For Johann, a German writer, travelling through Italy inspires him to develop ground-breaking ideas that will cement his place in history.

And for a young Swede, Linnaeus, an unwavering curiosity for earth’s natural wonders takes him on an expedition that will forever alter the way we understand the world around us.

A multi-layered literary saga bringing together people and places that seem, at first, far removed, Everything the Light Touches is a marvellous exploration of our ways of seeing, told through the eyes of four unexpectedly intertwined people.

THE NINE-CHAMBERED HEART (2017)

A tender puzzle of a book – Sophie Mackintosh

A bold, sharp, exquisite beast of a thing – Tishani Doshi

The story of one woman as seen through the eyes of those she has loved or been loved by. In gemlike chapters, nine characters illuminate an unknowable woman. From the school art teacher who sees a spark of talent in her, to the man whose fleeting passion with her could change his life, to the female student whose friendship turns into love. This kaleidoscopic novella builds a life with colour, with light and dark, and in turn asks the reader: How does the world see you?

The Nine-Chambered Heart is a deeply intimate, luminous and fine-boned novel that explores the nature of intimacy and how each connection you make forms who you are.

SEAHORSE (2014)

This elegant meditation on memory and desire is set in a world where love and absence go hand in hand. Read it for the luminous prose and listen for the click as character and destiny locks into place. – Jeet Thayil

Nem is a student of English Literature at Delhi University. He drifts between classes, weed-hazy parties, and the amorous complexities of campus life, until a chance encounter with an art historian steers him into a world of pleasure and artistic discovery. Nem’s life is irrevocably transformed. One day, without warning, his mentor disappears.
In the years that follow, Nem cocoons himself in South Delhi,  writing for a chic cultural journal. When he is awarded a fellowship to London, a cryptic note plunges him into a search for the art historian–a search which turns into a reckoning with his past.
Retelling the myth of Poseidon and his youthful male devotee Pelops, Seahorse transforms a simple coming-of-age story into an epic drama of loss, love, and healing.

BOATS ON LAND (2012)

A startlingly brilliant and compassionate writer whose book is as haunting as the world it emerges from. – Siddhartha Deb 

Boats on Land won the Yuva Puruskar (Young Writer) Award from the Sahitya Academy and the Crossword Award for Fiction in 2013.

These fifteen stories place India’s Northeast against a vast historical canvas—the early days of the British Raj, the World Wars, the arrival of Christian missionaries. Here, the everyday is infused with the folkloric and the supernatural. A girl dreams of being a firebird. An artist watches souls turn into trees. A man shape-shifts into a tiger. Another is bewitched by water fairies. While political and social unrest interweave with fireside tales and age-old superstitions.