The Age of Shiva - Hardcover

'Suri reveals an immense humanity and tenderness drawn by this compelling narrative, I read this marvelous book in one sitting.' Kiran Desai 'THE AGE OF SHIVA is a stunning novel, proof that Manil Suri is a major storyteller of heart and intelligence. Like ANNA KARENINA, THE AGE OF SHIVA is both intimate and epic, a balance of sensual beauty and visceral reality. Suri reveals truths about human nature: our circumstantial passions, the obsessions that confine us, and the many ways we rebel and find self-expression. Above all, this is a majestic story about love and its unexpected consequences' Amy Tan Praise for The Death of Vishnu: 'An intimate and intricate portrait of life in the metropolis of Bombay.' Vikram Chandra 'Manil Suri's The Death of Vishnu finds the universe in a block of Bombay flats; it is tender, caustic, witty and inspired.' Jim Crace

India, 1955: as the scars of Partition are just beginning to heal, seventeen-year-old Meera sits enraptured on the balcony of a college auditorium in Delhi. In the spotlight is Dev, singing a song so infused with passion that it arouses in her the first flush of erotic longing. She wonders if she can steal him away from Roopa, her older, more beautiful sister. When Meera's reverie comes true, it does not lead to the fairy-tale marriage she imagined. Dev's family is steeped in the very kind of orthodoxy her father has spent his life railing against. Meera has no choice but to obey her in-laws, tolerate Dev's drunken night-time fumblings, even observe the most arduous of Hindu fasts for his longevity. She must also fend off Dev's brother, Arya, whose right-wing zeal and lascivious gaze she finds repellent. Her only solace is in her sister-in-law Sandhya, with whom she comes to share a tenderness that is as heartbreaking as it is fleeting. A move to Bombay, so that Dev can chase his dream of success as a Bollywood singer, seems at first like a fresh start, but soon that dream - and their marriage - turns to ashes. It is only when their son is born that things change. For the first time, Meera feels fulfilled. She is finally ready to shape her own destiny, to take control of her world. A sweeping epic that traces the fortunes of a family in the aftermath of Indian independence, The Age of Shiva is the powerful story of an ancient society in transition and an extraordinary portrait of maternal love.