Name: The Far Field
ISBN: 9780802147967

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The Far Field

Madhuri Vijay

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Longlist:PEN/Hemingway Award - (2020)

"Remarkable . . . Vijay traces the fault lines of history, love, and obligation running through a fractured family and country." --Anthony Marra, New York Times-bestselling author of The Tsar of Love and Techno

Winner of the 2019 JCB Prize for Literature

Gorgeously tactile and sweeping in historical and socio-political scope, Pushcart Prize-winner Madhuri Vijay's The Far Field follows a complicated flaneuse across the Indian subcontinent as she reckons with her past, her desires, and the tumultuous present.

In the wake of her mother's death, Shalini, a privileged and restless young woman from Bangalore, sets out for a remote Himalayan village in the troubled northern region of Kashmir. Certain that the loss of her mother is somehow connected to the decade-old disappearance of Bashir Ahmed, a charming Kashmiri salesman who frequented her childhood home, she is determined to confront him. But upon her arrival, Shalini is brought face to face with Kashmir's politics, as well as the tangled history of the local family that takes her in. And when life in the village turns volatile and old hatreds threaten to erupt into violence, Shalini finds herself forced to make a series of choices that could hold dangerous repercussions for the very people she has come to love.

With rare acumen and evocative prose, in The Far Field Madhuri Vijay masterfully examines Indian politics, class prejudice, and sexuality through the lens of an outsider, offering a profound meditation on grief, guilt, and the limits of compassion.

"A chance to glimpse the lives of distant people captured in prose gorgeous enough to make them indelible--and honest enough to make them real." --The Washington Post

"A singular story of mother and daughter." --Entertainment Weekly

Book Details

Publisher: Grove Press
Publish Date: Oct 15th, 2019
Pages: 448
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 8.20in - 5.50in - 1.50in - 1.05lb
EAN: 9780802147967
Categories: • Literary• Cultural Heritage• Asian American & Pacific Islander

About the Author

Vijay, Madhuri: - Madhuri Vijay was born in Bangalore. The Far Field is her first book.

Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

Praise for THE FAR FIELD

WINNER OF THE 2019 JCB PRIZE IN LITERATURE

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION

AN INDIES INTRODUCE PICK, AN INDIENEXT SELECTION, A BARNES AND NOBLE DISCOVER GREAT NEW WRITERS SELECTION, AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH

A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY TOP 10 BEST FICTION BOOKS OF 2019

ONE OF HUDSON BOOKSELLER'S BEST FICTION BOOKS OF 2019

ONE OF BOOKBROWSE'S TOP 20 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

ONE OF ECONOMIST'S BEST BOOKS OF 2019

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2019 FOR ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, REFINERY 29, BUSINESS INSIDER, BUSTLE

"'All finite things reveal infinitude, ' wrote Theodore Roethke in 'The Far Field.' That poem, published in Roethke's final collection in 1964, concludes with the image of 'a ripple widening from a single stone / Winding around the waters of the world.' That's exactly the expanding effect of Madhuri Vijay's debut novel, which is also titled The Far Field....For the vast majority of us, who hear of the troubles in Kashmir only as a faint strain in the general din of world tragedies, The Far Field offers something essential: a chance to glimpse the lives of distant people captured in prose gorgeous enough to make them indelible -- and honest enough to make them real."--RON CHARLES, WASHINGTON POST

"In Madhuri Vijay's exquisite debut novel, grief propels a young woman to northern India, where she seeks answers about her mother's past. She meets people and communities constantly on the brink of political violence, upending her assumptions about herself and her country."―ELLE

"A courageous, insightful and affecting debut novel." ECONOMIST

"A story exploring the passage of time and the repercussions of one's actions sets out to ask the charged question of what it is that we spend our lives searching for."--VANITY FAIR

"A ghastly secret lies at the heart of Madhuri Vijay's stunning debut, The Far Field, and every chapter beckons us closer to discovering it....The Far Field chafes against the useless pity of outsiders and instead encourages a much more difficult solution: cross-cultural empathy. --PARIS REVIEW

"Vijay provides that alchemical mix of political examination with personal journey that deepens all great novels. The Far Field plays out along the Indian/Kashmir border and follows a young woman's awakening into the dark realities of her family and her country. As an added bonus, her mother is one of the most memorable characters in contemporary literature. At times brutal, but always tuned to the desperately sweet longing for human connection, Vijay has created a necessary and lovely work that transcends 2018!"―SOUTHERN LIVING

"Remarkable... engrossing...Vijay's stunning debut novel expertly intertwines the personal and political to pick apart the history of Jammu and Kashmir."--PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY (STARRED REVIEW)

"Vijay intertwines her story's threads with dazzling skill. Dense, layered, impossible to pin--or put--down...an engrossing tale of love and grief, politics and morality. Combining up-close character studies with finely plotted drama, this is a triumphant, transporting debut."--BOOKLIST (STARRED REVIEW)

"Vivid...a striking debut."--KIRKUS REVIEWS

"Gorgeously tactile and sweeping in historical and socio-political scope."BOOKBROWSE

"I had to remind myself while reading The Far Field that this is the work of a debut novelist, and not a mid-career book by a master writer at the height of her powers. Madhuri Vijay astonishes with her wisdom, her fearlessness, her sure handling of a desperately loaded narrative that's equal parts love story, war story, and family intrigue. Such is the power of Vijay's writing that I finished the book feeling like I'd lived it. Only the very best novels are experienced, as opposed to merely read, and this is one of those rare and brilliant novels."--BEN FOUNTAIN, author of BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY BURN AGAIN

"I am in awe of Madhuri Vijay. With poised and measured grace, The Far Field tells a story as immediate and urgent as life beyond the page. I will think of these characters - tender and complex, mysterious and flawed, remarkably real to me - for years to come, as though I have lived alongside them."--ANNA NOYES, author of GOODNIGHT, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN

"Utterly immersive and vividly realized, The Far Field is that rare gem of a novel which effortlessly transports the reader into distant, unfamiliar terrain through the force of a story deeply anchored in the humanity of its characters. Madhuri Vijay's debut marks the arrival of an astonishing new talent."--ELLIOT ACKERMAN, author of WAITING FOR EDEN

"The Far Field is remarkable, a novel at once politically timely and morally timeless. Madhuri Vijay traces the fault lines of history, love, and obligation running through a fractured family and country. Few novels generate enough power to transform their characters, fewer still their readers. The Far Field does both."--ANTHONY MARRA, author of THE TZAR OF LOVE AND TECHNO

"This riveting and unique book faces the most troubling, insoluble questions with a bold, keen clarity that has no patience for anything less than the complete truth, even if that truth is disappointing or merciless or dark. The fierce undertow of Vijay's prose masterfully propels this story about loyalty, about how we create, sustain, and inevitably break our bonds with other people."--MERRITT TIERCE, author of LOVE ME BACK

"I loved this novel. Shalini is an utterly convincing narrator, particularly in her naïveté, which might very well serve as a metaphor for her country's refusal to see what it has wrought in Kashmir. Madhuri Vijay has written a brilliant and important book."--LIAQUAT AHAMED author of LORDS OF FINANCE

"What do we spend our lives searching for? What lasts and what pushes us forward? These are some of the questions Madhuri Vijay's THE FAR FIELD explores and navigates with a heart on fire. Stunning in its artistry, in its engagement with the world and the personal, this is a profound and monumental achievement composed with rage, vulnerability, humor, grief, and mystery. How dangerous this novel is, in the very best of ways, and how grateful I am for this writer and for her creation."--PAUL YOON, author of THE MOUNTAIN

"A strikingly unusual book full of beauty and surprise."--SONIA FALEIRO, author of BEAUTIFUL THING

Bookseller praise for The Far Field

"Few seasoned novelists-let alone a first-time novelist like Madhuri Vijay-are able to construct scene after scene with compelling interior drama, tension and forward momentum. You never want to stop reading as Vijay skillfully combines a personal journey and a family mystery with a political examination of the Kashmiri-Indian troubles. Shalini, the narrator of this extraordinary work, has a mother who immediately belongs on any shortlist of literature's great characters. If I read a better novel in 2019, then 2019 will become my favorite year of the 21st Century."--Brian Lampkin, Scuppernong Books (Greensboro, NC)

"In Madhuri Vijay's The Far Field a young woman named Shalini explores the fraught and tender relationship between herself and her mother, and the roots of tragedy. Following her mother's death, Shalini leaves her privileged life in Bangalore for Kashmir-a place still scarred from the insurgencies of the 1980s and 90s-to find her mother's friend. Her quest, and its consequences, matched with lucid prose makes for an engrossing and accomplished novel."--Myles Mickle, Village Square Booksellers (Bellows Falls, VT)

"This rich, beautifully detailed story reads like the work of a seasoned novelist. Shalini, a young woman from Bangalore, travels to Kashmir to try to answer questions about her mother's untimely death. She becomes embroiled in the political rivalries that boil under the surface in that troubled area. Vijay's descriptions of the sights, sounds, and smells of southern India and Kashmir are dead-on. The characters are drawn with the detail of a fine portrait artist, with a deft hand at highlighting the flaws and goodness of even the most minor players."--Grace Harper, Mac's Backs (Cleveland, OH)

"In her remarkably accomplished debut novel, The Far Field, Madhuri Vijay takes a young woman on a quest, from her home in southern India to the politically-charged, volatile setting of Kashmir, which is also a quest into mysteries and uncertainties in her family's history. There are things about her mother, her father, another man. People, places, situations - tension - disclosures and revelations all happen, the way life happens, what's revealed after being concealed - all are evoked with beautiful, precise language. There is an assurance here, knowing of people's ways, that belie this being a first book or a younger writer. Beautifully done."--Rick Simonson, Elliott Bay Book Company (Seattle, WA)

"I am thirty years old and that is nothing." says The Far Field's narrator, Shalini, in the first line of this book, a statement that drives right into the heart of this story. What does age mean when the years have been sheltered, privileged? What does it mean to pursue a ghost from your past, a ghost that takes you out of the city (Bangalore) to a mountainous village in a politically volatile state (Kashmir)? What are our blind spots, and how can they wreck the lives of others? These are the deeper undercurrents of this force of a novel. Shalini's combination of self-awareness and recklessness makes this an absorbing, swift read, and The Far Field unfolds like a mystery. This is the kind of the story that calls to you when you're away from it, the kind of story that you never forget." -Shuchi Saraswat, Brookline Booksmith (Brookline, MA)

"Rarely does a book of this size and breadth capture a reader in the first few pages, but Madhuri Vijay's master storytelling sweeps you up and never lets you go. The Far Field is everything you want in an epic - love, loss, and relationships that transcend even the most horrific circumstances. Not everything is as it appears on the surface, and Vijay's nuanced writing creates depths that transform her characters and her readers." -Julie Slavinsky, Warwick's (La Jolla, CA)

"This is a big, beautiful novel with depth and a big heart. I was swept up in the story from the first page to the last." -Kerry Barringer, Little City Books (Hoboken, NJ)

"The death of Shalini's mother sparks a journey to Kashmir in search of a man who seemed to one day simply disappear. Once she finally reaches her destination, she is taken in by a family and soon realizes that she has found herself not in the Kashmir of the tales she was told as child, but one of a people, culture and region in bitter conflict. Written in rich prose, and intriguing characters, this debut is a slow burn that will linger long after pages are finished." -Shannon Alden, Literati Bookstore

"The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay is stunning! Shalini is a young woman from Bangalore searching for a man from memories of her childhood among the remote Himalayan villages of Kashmir to learn about her layered and enigmatic mother. Her journey forces her to go face-to-face with civil and social politics, while contending with the matters of her heart. Madhuri Vijay's writing is so aromatic, I could smell perfume and plumes of smoke in her sentences. I absolutely loved it!" -Thu Doan, Brazos Bookstore