Book Review: An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy

Tuesday 5 April, 2011 by 26 Comments


Title: An Atlas of Impossible Longing
Author: Anuradha Roy
Publisher: Free Press
Publication Date: April 5, 2011
Paperback: 336 pages
ISBN: 978-1451608625
Genre: Fiction, Indian, Literature


From the Publisher:

On the outskirts of a small town in Bengal, a family lives in solitude in their vast new house. Here, lives intertwine and unravel. A widower struggles with his love for an unmarried cousin. Bakul, a motherless daughter, runs wild with Mukunda, an orphan of unknown caste adopted by the family. Confined in a room at the top of the house, a matriarch goes slowly mad; her husband searches for its cause as he shapes and reshapes his garden.

As Mukunda and Bakul grow, their intense closeness matures into something else, and Mukunda is banished to Calcutta. He prospers in the turbulent years after Partition, but his thoughts stay with his home, with Bakul, with all that he has lost—and he knows that he must return.

My Review:

An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy is an expertly crafted tale of a multigenerational family, chronicling 5 decades of a Bengali family’s history, that, in addition to challenging the caste system in India, showcases love, forgiveness, and betrayal while combining the joys and sorrows of the past and present and looking forward to the future. In An Atlas of Impossible Longing, Roy masterfully details the lives of Amulya and Kananbala, husband and wife who make a change in their lives by moving from bustling Calcutta to the sleepy town of Songarh forever changing their lives. As Kananbala retreats into herself and becomes further secluded, Amulya becomes increasing obsessed with his exceptionally manicured garden. The story is told in three parts, with three generations and in the three cities of Songarh, Monoharpur and Calcutta. Beautifully complex with the nuances of a Shakespearean tragedy, Roy tells of Anulya’s and Kananbala’s adoption of Mukunda, an orphan of unknown caste, of their oldest son Kamal, who helps his father at the factory making herbal potions and pills, and of Nirmal, their archaeologist son who is also a bit of a nomad. Kamal’s wife, Manjula, longs for a child yet comes across as the least sympathetic character. Nirmal and his wife have a daughter, Bakul, whose primary caregiver is Meera, the household help and a distant relative to the family. The characters are realistically portrayed and flawed, making An Atlas of Impossible Longing an excellent choice to be read in discussion groups.

To learn more about Anuradha Roy please visit her blog.

I received a complimentary ARC An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy from Free Press. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.


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Book Review: Girls Like Us by Rachel Lloyd

Tuesday 5 April, 2011 by 5 Comments


Title: Girls Like Us
Author: Rachel Lloyd
Publisher: Harper
Publication Date: April 5, 2011
Hardcover: 288 pages
ISBN: 978-1451608625
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir


From the Publisher:

A deeply moving story by a survivor of the commercial sex industry who has devoted her career to activism and helping other young girls escape “the life”

At thirteen, Rachel Lloyd found herself caught up in a world of pain and abuse, struggling to survive as a child with no responsible adults to support her. Vulnerable yet tough, she eventually ended up a victim of commercial sexual exploitation. It took time and incredible resilience, but ?nally, with the help of a local church community, she broke free of her pimp and her past.

Three years later, Lloyd arrived in the United States to work with adult women in the sex industry and soon founded her own nonprofit—GEMS, Girls Educational and Mentoring Services—to meet the needs of other girls with her history. She also earned her GED and won full scholarships to college and a graduate program. Today Lloyd is executive director of GEMS in New York City and has turned it into one of the nation’s most groundbreaking nonprofit organizations.

In Girls Like Us, Lloyd reveals the dark, secretive world of her past in stunning cinematic detail. And, with great humanity, she lovingly shares the stories of the girls whose lives she has helped—small victories that have healed her wounds and made her whole. Revelatory, authentic, and brave, Girls Like Us is an unforgettable memoir.

My Review:

In a disquieting description of the lives of girls and young women entrained in the commercial sex trade, Rachel Lloyd in Girls Like Us tells readers of her perseverance to leave the abusive, destructive, and devastatingly tragic treatment that is so much a part of this major human rights issue. Lloyd grew up the daughter of a poor mother and an abusive male figure whose identity as her father was uncertain. Faced with the departure of the “father” figure, Lloyd’s mother who was nurturing in her early years sank into depression and relied heavily on alcohol as Lloyd was coming of age. Lloyd relied heavily on friends and petty crime to keep her afloat amidst the lack of support and caring from her mother. Lloyd shows how her longing for a caring, loving adult figure in her life set her up for what is all too often the very weakness that allows pimps to seduce disadvantaged girls into the sex trade. To help ensure that at-risk girls do not succumb to the seductions of the sex trade, Lloyd founded the Girls Educational and Mentoring Service (GEMS), a remarkable capstone to her life experiences that began with an incomprehensibly grotesque existence in the sex trade and through her determination and personal strength carried her into a life of confidence, independence, and now author of an incredibly educational, eye-opening memoir about an oft-overlooked human rights abuse that spans the globe. I cannot recommend Girls Like Us highly enough for all adult readers and book groups.

About the Author:

Rachel Lloyd earned her BA in psychology from Marymount Manhattan College and her MA in applied urban anthropology from the City College of New York. She is the founder and executive director of GEMS, Girls Educational and Mentoring Services, and has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Reebok Human Rights Award. Lloyd is an Ashoka Fellow and a Prime Mover Fellow, and she was a leading advocate for the Safe Harbor for Exploited Youth Act, which made New York the first state to protect, not prosecute, sexually exploited children. She lives in New York City.

I received a complimentary ARC of Girls Like Us by Rachel Lloyd from Harper Collins. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned novel.


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Teaser Tuesdays- An Atlas of Impossible Longing

Tuesday 5 April, 2011 by 95 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

    “‘Pity we can’t understand each other!’ Mrs. Barnum said, ‘We’d have such a jolly time.’  Kananbala bit into the biscuit mumbling fresh expressions of horror through the crumbs.”

    Page 83, An Atlas of Impossible Longing by Anuradha Roy

    My review may be read here.

    What are you reading?

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