An Atlas of Impossible Longing

One of those books I wished would never end.......

it was like being on a trip, and one so beautiful that nothing could mar it.... one of those that stays lingering in the heart long after the last page is turned.

Anuradha Roy seems to tune into people and their relationships, not as much with other people as also with their houses, the houses themselves become like significant characters. I love that about her.

At a personal level, I get attached to houses, and I like that my house symbolizes and reflects me in every way, and that's an added connect into her writing.

The characters and how their lives intertwine is so intricate that I am wary of even taking a shot at storyline....but suffice it to say it's a story that spans three generations set in the early 1900's of India, in small towns near Calcutta....through it's partition, and restoration.

More than story review, here's something on the book from The Washington Post that's worth a read:

"Every once in a great while, a novel comes along to remind you why you rummage through shelves in the first place. Why you peck like a magpie past the bright glitter of publishers’ promises. Why you read.

No “news hook” will have brought you to it. No famous name on the spine will suggest what’s in store. But as you slip into the book’s pages, you sense you are entering a singular creation, a richly populated world. Curiosity overcomes you. Before long, you are surrendering to the voice of a confident narrator, the arc of an unfamiliar story. And then, suddenly, you are swept away in a tale that is bristling with incident, steeped in the human condition, buffeted by winds of fate. This, you think, is the feeling you had as you read “Great Expectations” or “Sophie’s Choice” or “The Kite Runner.” This is why you read fiction at all."

I so agree. While I never fully moved away from fiction, she's definitely brought me fully back in.

And this line from the  New York times touched a poignant note

Some longings really do remain impossible, and on its best pages, though not its final ones, this book knows it.