Book Review - An Atlas of Impossible Longing - Anuradha Roy

Title:       An Atlas of Impossible Longings

Author:  Anuradha Roy

Review:  This book is filled with longing and heartache.  From the beginning the wife’s hatred for her new home just hurt to read.  Moving from a large busy city to a small rural community is hard on her and yet her husband takes no notice.  The children and the marriages of those children were happy occasions that a few years later would suddenly fill with loss.  The mother loses her mind in the process of all this misery.  Will any of the people in this house be happy? 

The description of the homes, ruins, gardens and almost everything else in this book, were absolutely beautiful.  The hurt and sorrow in their lives broke my heart.  The story swept from one member of the family to the next and each was tainted in some gloom.  The writing flowed well from each character to the next, with even a surprise here and there.  I usually never chose to read things that are depressing or filled with misery, now I remember why.  This is a book that will haunt me for awhile.

The story was beautifully written, but so much sorrow was almost too much for me.  Even the end was only bittersweet.  My favorite quote from the book is this.

“I know all about houses and homes, I who never had one.  I am Mukunda.  This is my story.”  This is on page 178.  The story took place in three different phases and this was the last phase.  Whenever I thought that the character would find what there were looking for they didn’t.  So much misery mixed with everyday life.  How much can one family take?

You will like this book if you enjoy vivid landscapes, beautiful phrasing, history mixed in and heartbreak, but if you don’t want to be heartbroken skip this one.

Publisher: June 5th 2008 by Quercus (first published 2008) this book is being released in paperback April 5th 2011 by Free Press Trade.

ISBN: 1847244777

Copyright: 2008

Pages:  320

Quick Review: 4 stars (out of 5), great writing but just so sad. 

Why I Read It:  The publisher was looking for bloggers to read and review her books.

Where I Obtained the Book:  Sent from the Publisher.

Synopsis:  The story is of three generations of an Indian family, brilliantly told, in which a sensitive and intelligent foundling boy orphan who is casteless and without religion and Bakul, the motherless granddaughter of the house, grow up together. The boy, Mukunda, spends his time as a servant in the house or reading the books of Mrs Barnum, an Anglo-Englishwoman whose life was saved long ago by Bakul's grandmother, by now demented by loneliness. Mrs Barnum gives Mukunda the run of her house, but as he and Bakul grow, they become aware that their intense closeness is becoming something else, and Bakul's father is warned to separate them. He banishes Mukunda to a school in Calcutta, where in the years after Partition he prospers, and whence in time he will return to rediscover all that he has lost.The novel begins in 1907 with the founding of a factory in Songarh, a small provincial town where narrow attitudes prevail. Amulya and Kananbala have two sons and as their family grows, and the house and their garden too, a microcosm of a society develops. It is scholarly, eccentric, hide-bound, fraught with drama, destined to self-destruct. The many strands of this intensely-fashioned narrative converge when Mukunda, by now a successful businessman, returns to Songarh years after he has been exiled from the only home he knew, to resolve the family's destiny.

Author Biography:   Anuradha Roy, a publisher based in Delhi and Ranikhet (she is the co-founder of India’s finest non-fiction press, Permanent Black.)  This is her first novel.

Other Reviews:

 The Independent

The Main Point

Neel Mukherjee

A complimentary copy of An Atlas of Impossible Longing was provided to me by the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are mine alone. Other bloggers participating in today's tour are invited and encouraged to leave their reactions and blog links in the comments below.