A superb second novel from the author of the multiple-award winning Saraswati Park. "They'd discussed it earlier, in the days of their friendship: the need to reach a certain phase in one's life, to become a householder, to enter the world and leave behind the selfish days of youth." Paris, London, Bombay: three cities form a backdrop to a journey through Leela's twenties at the dawn of the new millennium, as she learns to negotiate the world, work, relationships and sex, and find some measure of authenticity. Sharp, funny, and melancholy, Another Country brings a cool eye to friendship, love, and the idea of belonging in its movements through old and new worlds. As with her debut, Saraswati Park (2010), which won the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Betty Trask Prize and India's Vodafone Crossword Prize, Anjali Joseph's beautiful, clear writing captures exactly both emotions and surroundings.
Praise for Saraswati Park: Winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize Winner of the Betty Trask Prize Winner of the Vodafone Crossword Book Award Shortlisted for the Ondaatje Award Shortlisted for the Hindu Best Fiction Award Shortlsted for a Commonwealth Writers' Prize 'Joseph contrasts the inner and outer lives of her characters, and the uneasy friction between new and old cultures, with all the wit and delicacy of a latter-day Mrs Gaskell' The Times 'How true to life it seems -- the background of disconsolate rains and chattering mynah birds entirely Bombay, the preoccupations universal!a generous book where absolutes are neither sought nor found.' Guardian 'An elegantly realised portrait of unrequited love, frustrated aspirations and the unspoken compromises of marriage and family. Joseph neatly weaves in elements of the rapid social change occurring in the ever-expanding city but her principal concern is the more complex process of personal change and development and its bittersweet effects: the nerves, hang-ups and pains of youth and the regrets, pleasures and fulfilment of old age' Observer 'Joseph writes beautifully about quietness and stillness!she evokes the physical world that her characters inhabit exactly, without ever resorting to the sort of touristic colour that mars some English language Indian novels!this is a quiet, restrained novel but a great deal is going on beneath the surface' Sunday Times 'Both a coming-of-age novel and a portrait of a long marriage, Anjali Joseph's promising debut novel is a bittersweet, charming and likable book!Joseph's good-humoured and elegant prose, her appealing, complex characters and a beautifully realised Mumbai setting make for a bewitching read.' Irish Times This is the best debut novel I've read for a long time: admirable in its masterful ease, moving in its constant surrender to compassion and wonder' Amit Chaudhuri
Title: Another Country
Subtitle:
Contributors:
By (author)
Anjali Joseph
ISBN 13: 9780007462780
ISBN 10: 0007462786
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Imprint: Fourth Estate Ltd
Publication Date: 14/06/2012
Place of Publication:
London,
United Kingdom
Edition:
BIC Subjects:
Modern fiction
NBS Classification: General & Literary Fiction
Format: Paperback
Pages: 304
Height: 216mm
Width: 135mm
Weight: 291g