A recent take on the state of writing argues that novelists have been complicit in maintaining silence around global warming and climate change…They have obsessed over everyday life, but overlooked larger units of time and place. In the aftermath of such a critique of the genre of the novel, Shubhangi Swarup’s Latitudes of Longing is a much needed correction.
‘Intense, lyrical, and powerful…This is a remarkable debut.’ – Jeet Thayil. An astounding exploration of intense longings, Shubhangi Swarup’s novel begins in the depths of the Andaman Sea, and follows geological and emotional faultlines through the Irrawaddy delta and the tourist-trap of Thamel, to end amidst the highest glaciers and passes of the Karakorams.
Goodreads Reviews
Average Rating:
3.8 rating based on 3,516 ratings (all editions)
ISBN-10: 9353020263
ISBN-13: 9789353020262
Goodreads: 40932440
Author(s): Publisher: HarperCollins India
Published: 7/25/2018
‘Intense, lyrical, and powerful … This is a remarkable debut.’ – Jeet Thayil
An astounding exploration of intense longings, Shubhangi Swarup’s novel begins in the depths of the Andaman Sea, and follows geological and emotional faultlines through the Irrawaddy delta and the tourist-trap of Thamel, to end amidst the highest glaciers and passes of the Karakorams. The story sweeps through worlds and times that are inhabited by: a scientist who studies trees and a clairvoyant who talks to them; Lord Goodenough who travels around the furthest reaches of the Raj, giving names to nameless places; a geologist working towards ending futile wars over a glacier; octogenarian lovers; a superstitious dictator and a mother struggling to get her revolutionary son released; a yeti who seeks human companionship; a turtle who turns first into a boat and then a woman; and the ghost of an evaporated ocean as restless as the continents. Binding them all together is a vision of life as vast as the universe itself.
Richly imaginative and irresistible in its storytelling, Latitudes of Longing announces the arrival of an incredible new literary talent.
3.8 rating based on 3,516 ratings (all editions)
ISBN-10: 9353020263
ISBN-13: 9789353020262
Goodreads: 40932440
Author(s): Publisher: HarperCollins India
Published: 7/25/2018
‘Intense, lyrical, and powerful … This is a remarkable debut.’ – Jeet Thayil
An astounding exploration of intense longings, Shubhangi Swarup’s novel begins in the depths of the Andaman Sea, and follows geological and emotional faultlines through the Irrawaddy delta and the tourist-trap of Thamel, to end amidst the highest glaciers and passes of the Karakorams. The story sweeps through worlds and times that are inhabited by: a scientist who studies trees and a clairvoyant who talks to them; Lord Goodenough who travels around the furthest reaches of the Raj, giving names to nameless places; a geologist working towards ending futile wars over a glacier; octogenarian lovers; a superstitious dictator and a mother struggling to get her revolutionary son released; a yeti who seeks human companionship; a turtle who turns first into a boat and then a woman; and the ghost of an evaporated ocean as restless as the continents. Binding them all together is a vision of life as vast as the universe itself.
Richly imaginative and irresistible in its storytelling, Latitudes of Longing announces the arrival of an incredible new literary talent.
