Shalimar: A Story of Place and Migration

Davina Quinlivan

Hardcover

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In her mid-twenties, shortly before her father's death, Davina Quinlivan moved from her family home in west London to begin a transitory life in the countryside: here she felt restless and rootless, stuck between Deep England and the technicolour memories of her family's migration story. Beginning in colonial India and Burma, from the indigenous tribes from which the women in Quinlivan's family are descended, and reaching the streets of Southall and Ealing, the stories of her ancestors persisted in the tales, the language, the cooking and culture of her family. Quinlivan conjures a place between continents and worlds in a lyrical debut of migration, and homecoming, marking the arrival of an exceptional new voice.

Book Details

Publisher: Little Toller Books
Publish Date: Feb 6th, 2024
Pages: 176
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 8.90in - 5.80in - 0.90in - 0.90lb
EAN: 9781908213907
Categories: • Memoirs• English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh• Women

About the Author

Davina Quinlivan is the author of several books on cinema. She has taught at Kingston School of Art for over a decade, is a regular lecturer at The Freud Museum. She lives in Devon, with her family.

Praise for this book

'Davina Quinlivan is a writer of rare gentleness and insight: in Shalimar she winds us into the skein of her extended diasporic family, expressing the complexity of identity today. Deftly she weaves back and forth in time as she braids these memories, in a sustained, observant, poetic act of attention -- and love. ' Marina Warner, author of Inventory of a Life Mislaid, Once Upon a Time: a Short History of Fairy Tale and The Lost Father

'Shalimar is dreamlike and full of sensation - Quinlivan constellates memory, place and belonging with such rarely-seen subtlety. This is a book that will weave its way into your thoughts and stay with you.' Jessica J. Lee, author of Two Trees Make a Forest

'A haunted archive, a casket full of memories, myths and dreams. A strange and startling cargo of ancestors brought vividly to life by a magician.' Jeff Young, author of Costa shortlisted Ghost Town

'Evocative and heartfelt.' Helena Lee, Harper's Bazaar and editor-founder of East Side Voices

'Like the rest of us, Quinlivan's life is an outflowing of the influences of her family history. Unlike most of us, she is able to express this profound truth in achingly beautiful prose.' Psychogeographic Review

'Moving, lyrical, personal and immensely readable.' International Times