The Heart Is a Shifting Sea: Love and Marriage in Mumbai - Hardcover

"This remarkable debut is so deeply reported, elegantly written and profoundly transporting that it reads like a novel you can't put down. It's both a nuanced and intimate evocation of Indian culture, and a provocative and exciting meditation on marriage itself."--Katie Roiphe, author of The Violet Hour

"Elizabeth Flock takes us on an intimate cruise on the shifting sea of the heart, in the best book set in Bombay that I've read in years. Flock's total access to her characters, and her highly sympathetic and nonjudgemental gaze, prove that love and literature know no borders. Easily the most intimate account of India that I've read, and of value to anybody that believes in love and marriage."--Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City

"The Heart is a Shifting Sea is an intimate look at life in India, yet its intricately reported, novelistic portraits of marriage will resonate regardless of where you live. This book will keep you up reading deep into the night; it will make you ignore your loved ones, shirk your responsibilities. It is that good."--Peggy Orenstein, author of Girls & Sex

"Journalist Flock invites readers into the homes, lives, and marriages of three couples... living in Mumbai in this multifaceted portrait of love and marriage in modern India.... Flock approaches the histories, hopes, dreams, and disappointments of her middle- and upper-middle-class couples as a reporter, not a storyteller, and the book is better for it, steering clear of caricature and sentiment, and letting each of her subjects emerge in the details of his or her own circumstances.... Flock's book also provides a vivid portrait of a nation in transition."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Absorbing, candid.... An eye-opening exploration of how tradition and star-studded dreams shape love in modern India."--Kirkus

"An impressive feat of reporting.... These three marriages, without the Bollywood polish, offer an unforgettable look at both the risks and rewards of real-life romance."--Booklist

"For readers who love real-life love stories that are complicated, messy, and ultimately illuminating, then there's no better book to pick up this winter."--Bookish

"An intimate portrait of three marriages.... Because Flock goes deep, rather than broad... she makes readers feel as though they are peering through a window into these couples' lives.... Flock writes about... sensitive topics with generosity and empathy in this beautifully rendered, intricate, and human exploration of love and marriage."--Library Journal

"People come together, grow apart, struggle to hold on to love and family. It's an old story, of course, but a new book offers an unusually intimate focus in a place where tradition is colliding with 21st century global culture, Mumbai, India."--PBS Newshour

"The hearts that Flock excavates in forensic detail are not just those of the individuals, but of a country as it reimagines itself."--BookForum