LONGLISTED FOR THE 2011 MAN ASIAN LITERARY PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE HINDU LITERARY PRIZE FOR BEST FICTION 2011
With her debut novel, An Atlas of Impossible Longing, Anuradha Roy's exquisite storytelling instantly won readers' hearts around the world, and the novel was named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post and The Seattle Times. Now, Roy has returned with another masterpiece that is already earning international prize attention, an evocative and deeply moving tale of a young woman making a new life for herself amid the foothills of the Himalaya.
Desperate to leave a private tragedy behind, Maya abandons herself to the rhythms of the little village, where people coexist peacefully with nature. But all is not as it seems, and she soon learns that no refuge is remote enough to keep out the modern world. When power-hungry politicians threaten her beloved mountain community, Maya finds herself caught between the life she left behind and the new home she is determined to protect.
Elegiac, witty, and profound by turns, and with a tender love story at its core, The Folded Earth brims with the same genius and love of language that made An Atlas of Impossible Longing an international success and confirms Anuradha Roy as a major literary talent.
"[Roy's] narrative is poised and her language precise and poetic, without being flamboyant . . . a story about love and hate, continuity and change, loss and grief in a convincing and memorable setting."
--The Independent
"Anuradha's ability to seamlessly place the private lives of her characters within a larger socio-political setting is what she carries into her second book [as well] . . . at the end of The Folded Earth you feel a firm belief in the redemptive qualities of life and love."-- "Elle"
"Tight with life. . . .Roy's attention to individual words pays off as she conveys the full texture of experiences. . . . Even minor characters are evoked with inventive idiosyncrasy."-- "Daily Mail"
"A perfect treat . . . Roy brings her characters vividly and amusingly to life."-- "Country and Town House Magazine"
"Anuradha Roy's second novel demands that the reader pause, slow down, savour this work. . . . I hear echoes of Anita Brookner and Edna O'Brien and other writers like them as Roy brings Maya and her travails to life."-- "Biblio"
"Every once in a great while, a novel comes along to remind you why you rummage through shelves in the first place. . . . [A]s you slip into the book's pages, you sense you are entering a singular creation. . . . And then, suddenly, you are swept away. . . . This, you think, is the feeling you had as you read Great Expectations or Sophie's Choice or The Kite Runner. This is why you read fiction at all."-- "The Washington Post"
"How does a writer compete against the media's invasion of public discourse in all its chattering, hectoring, commercially packaged format. One way could be by creating a small, inviolable space in which to observe and record all the subterranean upheavals to create those moments of clarity that we value as literature. The small diamond that we have unearthed and enjoyed is called The Folded Earth."--The Economist Crossword Fiction Award Committee
"Eminently readable, a literary novel that feels timeless and authentic."-- "DNA"
"A jewel of a story."-- "The Deccan Herald"