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An Atlas of Impossible Longing
On the outskirts of a small town in Bengal, a family live in solitude in their vast new house. Here, swathed in silence, a widower struggles with feelings for an unmarried cousin while his motherless daughter Bakul runs wild with Mukunda, an orphan of unknown caste adopted by the family. Confined at the top of the house, the matriarch goes slowly mad, while her husband shapes and reshapes his glorious garden. As Mukunda and Bakul grow, their intense closeness matures into something else and Mukunda is banished to Calcutta. Although he prospers in the turbulent years after Partition, his thoughts are all of what was once his home - and he knows that he must return. This is a love story, as intricate as it is enchanting, about two people who find each other when abandoned by everyone else.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2008
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About the author
Anuradha Roy
23 books528 followersAnuradha Roy was educated in Hyderabad, Calcutta and Cambridge (UK). She is an editor at Permanent Black, an independent press publishing in South Asian history, politics and culture. She lives mainly in Ranikhet, India, with her husband Rukun Advani and their dog, Biscoot.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 487 reviews
September 5, 2017
[9/10]
There was a house once whose garden I knew, every last tree, and where the stairs had chipped away and which of the windows would not shut. The ophtalmologist asked me once, "Do foreign bodies ever interfere with your vision? Floating black specks?" And I thought, not bodies, houses, and not foreign, ground into my blood.
This is most of all a beautiful story about dreams, desires, hopes, longings – if you want, you can call it another atlas of clouds, less gimmicky, more heartfelt as it records the lives of three generations of lonely, almost broken, sad people struggling against a harsh climate and against a rigid social system. I like to think of the story as a sort of Indian version of 'Great Expectations' – and indeed you can find between the pages the tale of an orphan boy (Mukunda) educated in the exotic house of an old lady (Larissa Barnum) , a house that conceals a past murder and a boy that falls in love with a girl above his station (Bakul). I have a feeling though that I am oversimplifying the plot, and making light of the other dreamers in the story [slight spoilers here]: Amulya the businessman and gardener, the reclusive Kananbala, the grieving Nirmal, the poor relative Meera, the exiled professor from Calcutta, and so on...
In a story rich in symbols, houses and gardens are raised as a bulwark against creeping jungle, against flooding river, against murderous street mobs.
The forest watched. It was well known that leopards wandered its unknown interior. There were stories of tigers and jackals drinking together from streams that ran through it over round, grey and brown pebbles. Cows and goats disappeared, and sometimes dogs. It was useless looking for their remains. Until the mines came, and with them the safety of numbers, nobody from the town was foolhardy enough to venture into the wilderness at the edge of their homes: green, dark, alien, stretching for miles, ending only where the coal mines began.
The first house is a palatial mansion raised by Amulya, a rich businessman self-exiled from Calcutta, in the small mining town of Songarh. His wife resents the move, the loss of her social life and the nearness of the jungle, his 'sahib' neighbors look down at him as a local upstart, but Amulya loves to be closer to nature in his quiet, undemonstrative way: "He had created a garden where there had been wilderness"
The second house is a place of learning, an oasis of peace in the middle of the Partition turmoil in Calcutta – the residence of Suleiman Chacha - a Muslim scholar who adopts the stray dog, penniless student Mukumba after he escapes from the Songarh small town mentality.
The third one, the one that left the strongest impression on me, and the one that features in the prologue, is another palatial mansion, this one built in the Western style on the banks of a reckless river by Bikash Babul. A girl named after a tree growing by the side of the house (Bakul) is haunted by this place she has seen only in a picture before it was overrun by a sudden flood.
The link between the three stories, the dreamer who starts as a nobody and ends up as a builder of new homes, is Mukunda, a casteless orphan in a country where social inflexibility still rules. First taken out of the orphanage by Amulya, Mukunda is then encouraged by the family son, Nirmal, to go and study in Calcutta. There his origins are lost among the multitudes of people struggling to make ends meet, and his intelligence earns him a job for a venal building constructor. Yet Mukunda still dreams of his childhood friend Bakul, still trapped in the now decrepit house raised by Amulya.
He wanted to tell her that his dreams took him far beyond Songarh, beyond Calcutta, across oceans, towards icebergs. What would she say? "Take me with you! I want to come too!"
Women in India have a much tougher time outside of the family house, and three generations of women have to abide by the ancient rules that make their lives a prison. Starting with the old lady Kananbala, locked in her room after her husband dies and after she develops a speech impediment, by way of her rich neighbour Mrs Barnum, whose half-blood origins make her an outcast both in the eyes of the British and of the locals, passed on to the childless daughter-in-law Manjula, envious of other people's happiness, this alienation culminates in the servant girl Meera, brought down on the social ladder because she is a widow.
Some day, she fantasised, I'll again wear sunset orange, green the colour of a young mango, and rich semul red. Maybe just in secret, for myself, when nobody's looking, but I will.
Unknown to her, Nirmal was watching from outside. It had brought him to a standstill, to see her doing something so ordinary, looking at a sari, the kind of sari that a widow could never wear.
—«»—«»—«»—
I read the novel a couple of months ago and got sidetracked before I could write a review. A lot of the details from this rich tapestry of human emotion that I wanted to talk about got blurred, but I do hope I will be able to revisit Songarh and its people at some point in the future, because I think Anuradha Roy is a gifted storyteller with an eye for the inner beauty of people in hard circumstances. The only reason I refrained from the full five stars is that I've read before other books set in India that left an even stronger impression, like "A Fine Balance", and I feel the need to reserve that top spot for something similar.
Hand in hand, they stood in the middle of the empty fields under the star-filled sky, their troubles, fear, and the long way they still had to go before reaching home, all forgotten.
There was a house once whose garden I knew, every last tree, and where the stairs had chipped away and which of the windows would not shut. The ophtalmologist asked me once, "Do foreign bodies ever interfere with your vision? Floating black specks?" And I thought, not bodies, houses, and not foreign, ground into my blood.
This is most of all a beautiful story about dreams, desires, hopes, longings – if you want, you can call it another atlas of clouds, less gimmicky, more heartfelt as it records the lives of three generations of lonely, almost broken, sad people struggling against a harsh climate and against a rigid social system. I like to think of the story as a sort of Indian version of 'Great Expectations' – and indeed you can find between the pages the tale of an orphan boy (Mukunda) educated in the exotic house of an old lady (Larissa Barnum) , a house that conceals a past murder and a boy that falls in love with a girl above his station (Bakul). I have a feeling though that I am oversimplifying the plot, and making light of the other dreamers in the story [slight spoilers here]: Amulya the businessman and gardener, the reclusive Kananbala, the grieving Nirmal, the poor relative Meera, the exiled professor from Calcutta, and so on...
In a story rich in symbols, houses and gardens are raised as a bulwark against creeping jungle, against flooding river, against murderous street mobs.
The forest watched. It was well known that leopards wandered its unknown interior. There were stories of tigers and jackals drinking together from streams that ran through it over round, grey and brown pebbles. Cows and goats disappeared, and sometimes dogs. It was useless looking for their remains. Until the mines came, and with them the safety of numbers, nobody from the town was foolhardy enough to venture into the wilderness at the edge of their homes: green, dark, alien, stretching for miles, ending only where the coal mines began.
The first house is a palatial mansion raised by Amulya, a rich businessman self-exiled from Calcutta, in the small mining town of Songarh. His wife resents the move, the loss of her social life and the nearness of the jungle, his 'sahib' neighbors look down at him as a local upstart, but Amulya loves to be closer to nature in his quiet, undemonstrative way: "He had created a garden where there had been wilderness"
The second house is a place of learning, an oasis of peace in the middle of the Partition turmoil in Calcutta – the residence of Suleiman Chacha - a Muslim scholar who adopts the stray dog, penniless student Mukumba after he escapes from the Songarh small town mentality.
The third one, the one that left the strongest impression on me, and the one that features in the prologue, is another palatial mansion, this one built in the Western style on the banks of a reckless river by Bikash Babul. A girl named after a tree growing by the side of the house (Bakul) is haunted by this place she has seen only in a picture before it was overrun by a sudden flood.
The link between the three stories, the dreamer who starts as a nobody and ends up as a builder of new homes, is Mukunda, a casteless orphan in a country where social inflexibility still rules. First taken out of the orphanage by Amulya, Mukunda is then encouraged by the family son, Nirmal, to go and study in Calcutta. There his origins are lost among the multitudes of people struggling to make ends meet, and his intelligence earns him a job for a venal building constructor. Yet Mukunda still dreams of his childhood friend Bakul, still trapped in the now decrepit house raised by Amulya.
He wanted to tell her that his dreams took him far beyond Songarh, beyond Calcutta, across oceans, towards icebergs. What would she say? "Take me with you! I want to come too!"
Women in India have a much tougher time outside of the family house, and three generations of women have to abide by the ancient rules that make their lives a prison. Starting with the old lady Kananbala, locked in her room after her husband dies and after she develops a speech impediment, by way of her rich neighbour Mrs Barnum, whose half-blood origins make her an outcast both in the eyes of the British and of the locals, passed on to the childless daughter-in-law Manjula, envious of other people's happiness, this alienation culminates in the servant girl Meera, brought down on the social ladder because she is a widow.
Some day, she fantasised, I'll again wear sunset orange, green the colour of a young mango, and rich semul red. Maybe just in secret, for myself, when nobody's looking, but I will.
Unknown to her, Nirmal was watching from outside. It had brought him to a standstill, to see her doing something so ordinary, looking at a sari, the kind of sari that a widow could never wear.
—«»—«»—«»—
I read the novel a couple of months ago and got sidetracked before I could write a review. A lot of the details from this rich tapestry of human emotion that I wanted to talk about got blurred, but I do hope I will be able to revisit Songarh and its people at some point in the future, because I think Anuradha Roy is a gifted storyteller with an eye for the inner beauty of people in hard circumstances. The only reason I refrained from the full five stars is that I've read before other books set in India that left an even stronger impression, like "A Fine Balance", and I feel the need to reserve that top spot for something similar.
Hand in hand, they stood in the middle of the empty fields under the star-filled sky, their troubles, fear, and the long way they still had to go before reaching home, all forgotten.
December 28, 2014
هل للحنين أطلس نعم إن كان له صورا وأشكال وفي الرواية كان للحنين اشكالا عدة على مدى أجيال ثلاثة تعاقبت على الرواية عاشت فترة الاستعمار البريطاني ثم الاضطرابات السياسية التي غزت الهند وأدت إلى انقسامها إنها رواية الطبقات الاجتماعية ونظرة المجتمع تجاه المنبوذ ، رواية الحب والخيانة رواية الإنسان والعائلة إن تاريخ هذه العائلة البنغالية هو جزء من تاريخ الهند ..
منذ اللحظة الأولى يشدك السرد فلا تصدق أن هذه الروائية تكتب الرواية للمرة الأولى فهي محترفة في بناء شخصياتها .. روي أعطت لكل شخصية نصيبها من الرواية كما عاشت العالم الداخلي لأبطالها ...
على مستوى المكان يبدو أن الكاتبة درست المكان جيدا وكأنها عاشت فيه ويبدو أن دراستها للتاريخ وبحوثها في هذا المجال كان له دوره في إثراء الرواية فتستشعر هيمنة المكان والذي فرض العزلة على الشخصيات وكيف كان له أثره سواء على الجدة كانابالا في جنونها وتصرفاتها الغريبة أو زوجة كمال وغضبها أو كابول الصغيرة وتمردها فكانت هذه البرية وهذا الفضاء الممتد في سونغاره هو عالم آخر فسيح مشحون بالعديد من الدلالات وذا حضور طاغ في الرواية .. منولوجات نرمال ومنولوجات ميرا ولقاءاتهما وحواراتهما على بساطتها كان لها سحرها الخاص فالروائية استغلت جغرافية المكان المنعزل لتطلق العواطف في تفاصيل الحياة الاعتيادية فالعاطفة ظاهرة في كل أجزاء الرواية حتى في عواطف الروائية نفسها تجاه المكان وفي وصفها البليغ للطرق الضيقة ، الشوارع وبيوت الصفيح والطين وفي المقارنة ببيوت الأثرياء وشرفاتها وامتدادها إن بيئة الهند التي تتصف بتعدد طوائفها وتعدد الثقافات وتنوع أماكنها فيها كانت بيئة خصبة لتنسج العديد من الحكايات ..
التحولات التي مرت بها تلك الأراضي الشاسعة ما قبل الإستعمار وما بعده جعلتها عرضة للفساد وللتغيرات وللنزاعات الطائفية للانقسام الطبقي أغلبها ظل أسيرا للعادات والتقاليد والأحكام المسبقة .. وكما كانت مئة عام من العزلة ملحمة روائية كذلك أطلس الحنين المستحيل فهي ملحمة للحب وللحنين لشكل العلاقات الزوجية للطموحكما كانت وجها للفساد والعنف الطائفي والخيانة وهناك الهند بسحرها بأنهارها بأشجارها ، ناسها مذاهبها وطوائفها
كل الشخصيات لها دورها في السرد ولها أهميتها لا تشعر بوجود شخصية مقحمة الشخصيات ذات حيوية حتى في عوالمها الداخلية في حالة شد وجذب تشعر بإنفعالاتها ودفئها بحميميتها تكمل بعضها كدورة الحياة الطبيعية تحرّك الأحداث تحمل بعدا إنسانيا بعضها ذا دوافع غامضة وأخرى واضحة كالشمس .. شخصيات تظهر وتختفي حين ينتهي دورها ، وفي كل مرة تنظر للمتبقي من الصفحات وتسأل حسنا ماذا ستقول أيضا الكاتبة !
ستفاجئك لأنها ستدخلك إلى عالم آخر ومحيط آخر وصور مختلفة .. والحقيقة إن اختلاف شخصياتها النسائية على الرغم من أنهن عشن في بيئة واحدة ومكان واحد و لكل واحدة منهن أفكارها ومواهبها آمالها وخيباتها كان أمرا مذهلا وهناك العديد من المشاهد في النص التي ستشعرك بحالة من السلام والتسامح
تكتب روي حروفها دون تعقيد بسيطة منسابة انسيابا عذبا لحد الإعجاب ، شاعرية دون تكلف رشيقة تسير بخفة تجذبك تفاصيلها تشعر بثقتها بنفسها بإعتدادها ببلدها ، مشوقة المذهل إنك لن تشعر إنها الرواية الأولى بل وكأن لها تاريخا في السرد الروائي
لستُ متأكدة من إعجابي بفصل النهاية ومع ذلك أميل لمنح هذه الرواية الجميلة النجوم الخمسة إعجابا وامتنانا لكل الجمال الذي قدمته لي روي أثناء القراءة
منذ اللحظة الأولى يشدك السرد فلا تصدق أن هذه الروائية تكتب الرواية للمرة الأولى فهي محترفة في بناء شخصياتها .. روي أعطت لكل شخصية نصيبها من الرواية كما عاشت العالم الداخلي لأبطالها ...
على مستوى المكان يبدو أن الكاتبة درست المكان جيدا وكأنها عاشت فيه ويبدو أن دراستها للتاريخ وبحوثها في هذا المجال كان له دوره في إثراء الرواية فتستشعر هيمنة المكان والذي فرض العزلة على الشخصيات وكيف كان له أثره سواء على الجدة كانابالا في جنونها وتصرفاتها الغريبة أو زوجة كمال وغضبها أو كابول الصغيرة وتمردها فكانت هذه البرية وهذا الفضاء الممتد في سونغاره هو عالم آخر فسيح مشحون بالعديد من الدلالات وذا حضور طاغ في الرواية .. منولوجات نرمال ومنولوجات ميرا ولقاءاتهما وحواراتهما على بساطتها كان لها سحرها الخاص فالروائية استغلت جغرافية المكان المنعزل لتطلق العواطف في تفاصيل الحياة الاعتيادية فالعاطفة ظاهرة في كل أجزاء الرواية حتى في عواطف الروائية نفسها تجاه المكان وفي وصفها البليغ للطرق الضيقة ، الشوارع وبيوت الصفيح والطين وفي المقارنة ببيوت الأثرياء وشرفاتها وامتدادها إن بيئة الهند التي تتصف بتعدد طوائفها وتعدد الثقافات وتنوع أماكنها فيها كانت بيئة خصبة لتنسج العديد من الحكايات ..
التحولات التي مرت بها تلك الأراضي الشاسعة ما قبل الإستعمار وما بعده جعلتها عرضة للفساد وللتغيرات وللنزاعات الطائفية للانقسام الطبقي أغلبها ظل أسيرا للعادات والتقاليد والأحكام المسبقة .. وكما كانت مئة عام من العزلة ملحمة روائية كذلك أطلس الحنين المستحيل فهي ملحمة للحب وللحنين لشكل العلاقات الزوجية للطموحكما كانت وجها للفساد والعنف الطائفي والخيانة وهناك الهند بسحرها بأنهارها بأشجارها ، ناسها مذاهبها وطوائفها
كل الشخصيات لها دورها في السرد ولها أهميتها لا تشعر بوجود شخصية مقحمة الشخصيات ذات حيوية حتى في عوالمها الداخلية في حالة شد وجذب تشعر بإنفعالاتها ودفئها بحميميتها تكمل بعضها كدورة الحياة الطبيعية تحرّك الأحداث تحمل بعدا إنسانيا بعضها ذا دوافع غامضة وأخرى واضحة كالشمس .. شخصيات تظهر وتختفي حين ينتهي دورها ، وفي كل مرة تنظر للمتبقي من الصفحات وتسأل حسنا ماذا ستقول أيضا الكاتبة !
ستفاجئك لأنها ستدخلك إلى عالم آخر ومحيط آخر وصور مختلفة .. والحقيقة إن اختلاف شخصياتها النسائية على الرغم من أنهن عشن في بيئة واحدة ومكان واحد و لكل واحدة منهن أفكارها ومواهبها آمالها وخيباتها كان أمرا مذهلا وهناك العديد من المشاهد في النص التي ستشعرك بحالة من السلام والتسامح
تكتب روي حروفها دون تعقيد بسيطة منسابة انسيابا عذبا لحد الإعجاب ، شاعرية دون تكلف رشيقة تسير بخفة تجذبك تفاصيلها تشعر بثقتها بنفسها بإعتدادها ببلدها ، مشوقة المذهل إنك لن تشعر إنها الرواية الأولى بل وكأن لها تاريخا في السرد الروائي
لستُ متأكدة من إعجابي بفصل النهاية ومع ذلك أميل لمنح هذه الرواية الجميلة النجوم الخمسة إعجابا وامتنانا لكل الجمال الذي قدمته لي روي أثناء القراءة
June 16, 2020
A truly fantastic read - beautifully written, moving and powerful. The characterisation was impeccable and I love the way all the narratives twisted together.
June 14, 2011
Seeking solitude and a niche for himself, Amulya moves to the idyllic village of Songarh, and sets up a factory that manufactures authentic herbal potions from the unique plants of the region. As much as Amulya appreciates Songarh, his family, especially his wife, dearly misses the bustling life of Calcutta. Her loneliness is an implacable longing. The longing starts there. Each person has his or her own deep longing, and grapples to fill the void caused by it. Due to the stringent rules imposed by a complicated social structure, the characters realize that their longing is almost impossible to be quenched. So, they move on and live through life, trying to swim against the currents, until they resign themselves to the path charted by destiny. Anuradha Roy has crafted a moving story and real-to-life characters that leave a strong impression on the reader.
My thoughts on the book are sparse, but the feelings it has evoked, and the images it has burned in my mind, are far too many. The story takes us through three generations, spanning from the 1920s to the 1950s of India. Roy delicately weaves the political and social shifts in this time period into the story. It is subtly and expertly done to vividly show the marked changes these bring about in the lives of the characters. I loved the tight-knit integration. And the sheer breadth of social and political issues she seamlessly covers, is remarkable. She covers caste system, the pitiable treatment of widows, the hindu-muslim rivalry, the cut-throat nature of survival in Calcutta, the impenetrable distance between the English and the locals, the colonial hangover, infidelity, and the dynamics of an orthodox family. It might seem like she went through all the essential check-list items on India, but her execution is impeccable and everything neatly and naturally falls into the story. Nothing is over-done. Her prose has an under-stated elegance in conveying these heavy themes. Through her precise and sensitive descriptions, she captures the heart of India, and Indian families.
Her writing is beautiful - it has a quiet flair to it. Her words are used sparingly, but aptly, to draw her characters and emanate their thoughts and feelings from the pages. Her characterization is brilliant. Although it’s been two days since I finished the book, I still retain crystal clear images of the characters and the settings. And I’m sure I’ll carry these quaint images with me for a long time to come, even if my memory of the story fades.
My thoughts on the book are sparse, but the feelings it has evoked, and the images it has burned in my mind, are far too many. The story takes us through three generations, spanning from the 1920s to the 1950s of India. Roy delicately weaves the political and social shifts in this time period into the story. It is subtly and expertly done to vividly show the marked changes these bring about in the lives of the characters. I loved the tight-knit integration. And the sheer breadth of social and political issues she seamlessly covers, is remarkable. She covers caste system, the pitiable treatment of widows, the hindu-muslim rivalry, the cut-throat nature of survival in Calcutta, the impenetrable distance between the English and the locals, the colonial hangover, infidelity, and the dynamics of an orthodox family. It might seem like she went through all the essential check-list items on India, but her execution is impeccable and everything neatly and naturally falls into the story. Nothing is over-done. Her prose has an under-stated elegance in conveying these heavy themes. Through her precise and sensitive descriptions, she captures the heart of India, and Indian families.
Her writing is beautiful - it has a quiet flair to it. Her words are used sparingly, but aptly, to draw her characters and emanate their thoughts and feelings from the pages. Her characterization is brilliant. Although it’s been two days since I finished the book, I still retain crystal clear images of the characters and the settings. And I’m sure I’ll carry these quaint images with me for a long time to come, even if my memory of the story fades.
April 20, 2020
رواية مؤثرة عن العزلة والحنين والحب والوفاء، عن الأرض والهجرة والفرص المفقودة
December 26, 2015
أطلس الحنين المستحيل .. أنورادا روي
تدور أحداث الرواية في الهند بين عامي 1920 و1950 .وعلى لسان ثلاث شخصيات تتواصل أحداث الرواية
الحياة في الريف والعلاقات العائلية ، التعقيدات الإجتماعية ، لاحقاً الحياة في العاصمة ، والعلاقات بين الطوائف الدينية والجو العام قبل الإستقلال وانقسام شبه القارة الهندية إلى دولتين : الهند وباكستان .
بما فيها الحياة الإقتصادية والبنية التحتية والتجارة والتاريخ والتعليم وغيرها .
وعلاقات طويلة ومعقدة حيناً حب صداقة واحترام وإمتنان ..وحيناً آخر كره وحقدٌ وغدر .
وفي ما يزيد عن 500 صفحة دون أن تضعف للحظة أو يقل مستواها أو تجد أحداثاً وجدت لمجرد الحشو ..
أطلس الحنين المستحيل هو العمل الأول للكاتبة الهندية أنورادا روي ..
عمل من القوة والجمال بـ حيث لا تسعفني الكلمات لوصفه ...
تدور أحداث الرواية في الهند بين عامي 1920 و1950 .وعلى لسان ثلاث شخصيات تتواصل أحداث الرواية
الحياة في الريف والعلاقات العائلية ، التعقيدات الإجتماعية ، لاحقاً الحياة في العاصمة ، والعلاقات بين الطوائف الدينية والجو العام قبل الإستقلال وانقسام شبه القارة الهندية إلى دولتين : الهند وباكستان .
بما فيها الحياة الإقتصادية والبنية التحتية والتجارة والتاريخ والتعليم وغيرها .
وعلاقات طويلة ومعقدة حيناً حب صداقة واحترام وإمتنان ..وحيناً آخر كره وحقدٌ وغدر .
وفي ما يزيد عن 500 صفحة دون أن تضعف للحظة أو يقل مستواها أو تجد أحداثاً وجدت لمجرد الحشو ..
أطلس الحنين المستحيل هو العمل الأول للكاتبة الهندية أنورادا روي ..
عمل من القوة والجمال بـ حيث لا تسعفني الكلمات لوصفه ...
September 18, 2015
I read this several years ago, but having recently finished Roy's new Booker-nominated 'Sleeping on Jupiter', I wanted to re-visit it. It didn't disappoint. It's a deeply moving and beautifully written saga that covers the history of a Bengali family over 3 or 4 decades. The prose is astonishing accomplished, the characters vivid and varied, and doesn't betray any of the foibles common to a first novel.
February 14, 2017
Тази книга беше за мен една изключително приятна изненада. Прекрасна семейна сага и портрет на Индия и индийското общество и нрави в периода от 20-те до 50-те години на XX век.
За мен е тя в пъти по-добра като стил и повествование от "Оризовата майка". На моменти ми напомняше стила на Маркес в известни моменти (без магическите елементи ), както и на "Богът на дребните неща".
Не знам какви още книги ще прочета през тази година, но "Атлас на невъзможния копнеж" определено ще ми е в топ 5 на годината. Просто няма едно нещо тук, което да не ми хареса!
Затова давам пет звезди без никаква уговорка :)
За мен е тя в пъти по-добра като стил и повествование от "Оризовата майка". На моменти ми напомняше стила на Маркес в известни моменти (без магическите елементи ), както и на "Богът на дребните неща".
Не знам какви още книги ще прочета през тази година, но "Атлас на невъзможния копнеж" определено ще ми е в топ 5 на годината. Просто няма едно нещо тук, което да не ми хареса!
Затова давам пет звезди без никаква уговорка :)
March 8, 2020
The India which Roy depicts is one of soft, shimmering beauty, where beneath the backdrop of languorous days and the dim, crepuscular orange light of its sunsets, the interplay between the various characters who populate the story is played out. A common thread running through the stories is one of isolation; although the characters are surrounded by people, most of them feel irrevocably alone, either after losing something or somebody they love, whether is Kannabla for her husband or her husband's for their drowned house, or Nirmal's for his wife Shanti after she dies. Happiness seems to be an impossible thing to grasp and, when grasped, something which is all too easy to lose, with each character trapped in the net of loneliness which they find themselves caught under.
Amidst all this is the story of Mukunda and Bakul, whose childhood inseparability develops into something more meaningful only to be severed by Bakul's familial prejudices. And so their paths diverge until they are brought together under the eaves of the house which caused it all, the house which had been drowned by a river whose torrents have finally been tamed and which acts as backdrop for not just the reunion of Mukunda and Bakul, but also acts as closure for the tragedies which struck the characters after they were uprooted from it.
Amidst all this is the story of Mukunda and Bakul, whose childhood inseparability develops into something more meaningful only to be severed by Bakul's familial prejudices. And so their paths diverge until they are brought together under the eaves of the house which caused it all, the house which had been drowned by a river whose torrents have finally been tamed and which acts as backdrop for not just the reunion of Mukunda and Bakul, but also acts as closure for the tragedies which struck the characters after they were uprooted from it.
April 27, 2019
An Atlas of Impossible Longing is the third novel by Anuradha Roy that I’ve read. She’s a fine novelist, who excels at representing emotionally lost and literally and figuratively orphaned children. Roy’s characters are universally engaging and believable, often simultaneously marked by regret and resentment. Although An Atlas of Impossible Longing includes a couple of situations that strain credulity, it’s otherwise an outstanding novel that ages well. 4.5 stars
April 15, 2013
It requires a bit of courage and ability to write a sad story without actually making the reader depressed. I think that is the most commendable part of Anuradha Roy's writing.
This book makes you sad, but it is not depressing. And I loved the Bengali village scenario and the pre-Independence era portrayed set in West Bengal.
One of the best novels written in an Indian setting :)
Verdict: Great Read.
This book makes you sad, but it is not depressing. And I loved the Bengali village scenario and the pre-Independence era portrayed set in West Bengal.
One of the best novels written in an Indian setting :)
Verdict: Great Read.
April 12, 2011
The Good Stuff
* Beautifully almost lyrically written.
* The landscape feels so real you could reach out and touch it.
* You can feel the authors love for the countryside
* This is not my sort of book, so please if you think you will like it, go get it, the author has talent. Check out the more positive reviews from other people listed below
* Some light humour - enjoyed the swearing bird
The Not so Good Stuff
* This one was a painful read for me as I just couldn't get into it, but too stubborn to not finish it
* Very slow
* The men are self involved selfish misogynistic bastards and quite frankly just didn't give a rats ass about any of them. Mukunda had potential but he ended up hurting people due to his own selfish desires too
* I don't understand the choices made by many of the characters and it is in a world I do not understand
* quite depressing and bitter at times
Favorite Quotes/Passages
"Submerged just beneath the surface of their talk was the sense that his departure was a scorning of their lives, the redrawing of a pattern that had already been perfected."
"Bitterly she muttered "God's ways are strange, that he should give children to those who don't care for them and leave me childless"
"But Nirmal could not disguise it from himself. He had brought in the child when it was convenient for him, and now that Bakul was growing up it was no longer convenient."
What I Learned
* That I really am not a huge fan of flowery prose
* Seems I am a bit of a feminist after all
Who should/shouldn't read
* Not for those like me who need a more exciting storyline -- if you like character pieces this may be for you
* Probably better suited for those who are far more well read than I
2.5 Dewey's (This is based on MY enjoyment NOT on the talents of the author)
* Beautifully almost lyrically written.
* The landscape feels so real you could reach out and touch it.
* You can feel the authors love for the countryside
* This is not my sort of book, so please if you think you will like it, go get it, the author has talent. Check out the more positive reviews from other people listed below
* Some light humour - enjoyed the swearing bird
The Not so Good Stuff
* This one was a painful read for me as I just couldn't get into it, but too stubborn to not finish it
* Very slow
* The men are self involved selfish misogynistic bastards and quite frankly just didn't give a rats ass about any of them. Mukunda had potential but he ended up hurting people due to his own selfish desires too
* I don't understand the choices made by many of the characters and it is in a world I do not understand
* quite depressing and bitter at times
Favorite Quotes/Passages
"Submerged just beneath the surface of their talk was the sense that his departure was a scorning of their lives, the redrawing of a pattern that had already been perfected."
"Bitterly she muttered "God's ways are strange, that he should give children to those who don't care for them and leave me childless"
"But Nirmal could not disguise it from himself. He had brought in the child when it was convenient for him, and now that Bakul was growing up it was no longer convenient."
What I Learned
* That I really am not a huge fan of flowery prose
* Seems I am a bit of a feminist after all
Who should/shouldn't read
* Not for those like me who need a more exciting storyline -- if you like character pieces this may be for you
* Probably better suited for those who are far more well read than I
2.5 Dewey's (This is based on MY enjoyment NOT on the talents of the author)
April 25, 2020
Un roman complex, care îmi va rămâne, cu siguranţă, pentru mult timp în minte. O poveste cum rar îţi e dat să citeşti. Dar mai presus de toate, o călătorie fascinantă în India.
"Oamenii au uneori idei fixe pe care alţii nu le înţeleg. Lor li se par a fi absolut justificate, deşi alţii le găsesc iraţionale."
"Oamenii au uneori idei fixe pe care alţii nu le înţeleg. Lor li se par a fi absolut justificate, deşi alţii le găsesc iraţionale."
February 6, 2016
تنجح روي في القبض على اهتمامي من اول الرواية والاحتفاظ به مشتعلا حتى النهاية. هذه قصة عن الحب أولا، وعن الارواح الهائمة في متاهات سعيا وراء الاهتمام وخلف حب لا تستطيع ادراكه لأسباب تختلف، من الفروق الطبقية كما هو الحال مع موكوندا اليتيم مجهول الابوين، أو من الألم المضن للفقد كما هو الأمر مع نيرمال العاجز عن احتواء ابنته الصغيرة، أو من العادات الاجتماعية كما هو الأمر مع ميرا الأرملة التي لا يمكنها وضع احتمال ان تنشأ علاقة مع قريبها موضع التصديق. يزدحم البيت بعواطفهم المحبوسة، تقودهم الاحداث مرة قريبا من مخرج المتاهة ومرات أبعد عنها ونتابع السرد المتلاحق عبر ثلاثة أجيال من العائلة أملا في أن يحظى أحدهم بنهاية سعيدة.
ترسم روي تفاصيل المكان ونشعر بالاجواء الهندية حيث تأخذ احداث الرواية مواقعها في قرى نائية وبرية في ولاية البنغال، على ضفاف الغانغا تبدأ في المنزل الذي غدر به النهر وداهمه ذات فيضان، الى سونغارة ومنها الى المدينة كلكتا وعودا الى نقطة البداية. ونرى في الخلفية الزمنية للرواية كيف أثرّ تقسيم الهند وباكستان على حياة بعض الشخصيات، هبط فوق بعضها كمالصيبة وكان كطالع السعد لآخرين، فيما تدور عجلة الزمن بلا توقف.
تتعدد اصوات السرد، وتمنح موكوندا المهمش صوتا في القسم الاخير من الحكاية ليكشف لنا عبر اعترافه الشخصي عواطفه، بما في ذلك حيرته العاطفية تجاه العائلة التي آوته دون ان تعطيه الانتماء لها، والشعور بالعار لخياناته.
اعتقد ان روي منحت معظم الشخصيات "الكثيرة" فرصة النمو عبر احداث الرواية وخلق رابط يشدها ويقربها من القاريء وهكذا راقبنا تقلباتها عبر مرور الزمن، بما في ذلك الببغاء "نوري" لكن لم يشمل ذلك الطفلة باكول التي انتقلنا من مشهد طفولتها الى مشهد نضجها دون ان نعرف كيف عبرت تلك السنوات بعد انتزاع احبائها منها.
لا تخلو الرواية من الخيبات، ليس ثمة أبطال هنود ينقذون الموقف بمعجزة في اللحظة الأخيرة، لكنها تمنحك شعورا بالاقتناع والقبول بواقعية ما حدث.
ترسم روي تفاصيل المكان ونشعر بالاجواء الهندية حيث تأخذ احداث الرواية مواقعها في قرى نائية وبرية في ولاية البنغال، على ضفاف الغانغا تبدأ في المنزل الذي غدر به النهر وداهمه ذات فيضان، الى سونغارة ومنها الى المدينة كلكتا وعودا الى نقطة البداية. ونرى في الخلفية الزمنية للرواية كيف أثرّ تقسيم الهند وباكستان على حياة بعض الشخصيات، هبط فوق بعضها كمالصيبة وكان كطالع السعد لآخرين، فيما تدور عجلة الزمن بلا توقف.
تتعدد اصوات السرد، وتمنح موكوندا المهمش صوتا في القسم الاخير من الحكاية ليكشف لنا عبر اعترافه الشخصي عواطفه، بما في ذلك حيرته العاطفية تجاه العائلة التي آوته دون ان تعطيه الانتماء لها، والشعور بالعار لخياناته.
اعتقد ان روي منحت معظم الشخصيات "الكثيرة" فرصة النمو عبر احداث الرواية وخلق رابط يشدها ويقربها من القاريء وهكذا راقبنا تقلباتها عبر مرور الزمن، بما في ذلك الببغاء "نوري" لكن لم يشمل ذلك الطفلة باكول التي انتقلنا من مشهد طفولتها الى مشهد نضجها دون ان نعرف كيف عبرت تلك السنوات بعد انتزاع احبائها منها.
لا تخلو الرواية من الخيبات، ليس ثمة أبطال هنود ينقذون الموقف بمعجزة في اللحظة الأخيرة، لكنها تمنحك شعورا بالاقتناع والقبول بواقعية ما حدث.
October 17, 2012
An atlas of impossible longing happened just naturally for author Anuradha Roy. The novel grew out of an image of a large house half-submerged by a river. It was a haunting photograph of an actual house that had to be abandoned by her aunt’s family.
The book starts in 1907 and goes right up to the 1950s. It traces in its pages the lives and travails of a family over three generations. Amulya is quite a reticent man. A visit to a small town of Sonagarh changes his perception completely. He feels a certain kinship to the ruins, the life and the atmosphere there and decides to set base there. But this change from Calcutta did not go down well with his wife Kananbala, a young bride forced to stay at home. Slowly madness sets in and Amulya tries desperately to figure out where his young wife had disappeared gradually.
The other pivotal character in the novel is Mukunda, a boy abandoned by his parents. Amulya takes responsibility of the child and later on his son Nirmal does too. Growing up alongside Mukunda in the house is Bakul, Nirmal’s daughter,who uses photographs to enter the world of her dead mother.
The story does not feel too ambitious to begin with. In the first half Roy brings to the fore issues of patriarchy, the ill-treatment of widows, the stigma against patients with a mental condition and life during the British Raj, but then a flood happens and changes the whole scope of the story.
Roy’s characters are the highlight of this book. The women especially cry out for attention. Be it the mad Kananbala, the lost in time Mrs Barnaum, the oppressed Meera or the rebellious Bakul, each have a tale to tell. Roy also effortlessly weaves in the history of India, which she says is what also affects her characters. For example the riots during the partition, the caste divide and the surveys done by the Archaeological survey of India etc. Though there is ambiguity in the relationships in the novel, Roy makes sure that it has optimistic ending. For by her own admission, her attempt was to show the possibility of friendships between unlikely people and the importance of relationships. For a debut Roy definitely deserves a pat on her back.
The book starts in 1907 and goes right up to the 1950s. It traces in its pages the lives and travails of a family over three generations. Amulya is quite a reticent man. A visit to a small town of Sonagarh changes his perception completely. He feels a certain kinship to the ruins, the life and the atmosphere there and decides to set base there. But this change from Calcutta did not go down well with his wife Kananbala, a young bride forced to stay at home. Slowly madness sets in and Amulya tries desperately to figure out where his young wife had disappeared gradually.
The other pivotal character in the novel is Mukunda, a boy abandoned by his parents. Amulya takes responsibility of the child and later on his son Nirmal does too. Growing up alongside Mukunda in the house is Bakul, Nirmal’s daughter,who uses photographs to enter the world of her dead mother.
The story does not feel too ambitious to begin with. In the first half Roy brings to the fore issues of patriarchy, the ill-treatment of widows, the stigma against patients with a mental condition and life during the British Raj, but then a flood happens and changes the whole scope of the story.
Roy’s characters are the highlight of this book. The women especially cry out for attention. Be it the mad Kananbala, the lost in time Mrs Barnaum, the oppressed Meera or the rebellious Bakul, each have a tale to tell. Roy also effortlessly weaves in the history of India, which she says is what also affects her characters. For example the riots during the partition, the caste divide and the surveys done by the Archaeological survey of India etc. Though there is ambiguity in the relationships in the novel, Roy makes sure that it has optimistic ending. For by her own admission, her attempt was to show the possibility of friendships between unlikely people and the importance of relationships. For a debut Roy definitely deserves a pat on her back.
January 29, 2016
Don't you just love a book that gets better page by page? As I started this book, I thought it was just another Indian family saga. And so it seemed for perhaps almost the first half. It was good, I was enjoying reading it, but it wasn't special. Then things changed and the second half of the book went up a level.
All the way through, the characters in this book feel alive and real. And so do the places. It is excellent writing. But once the story starts to focus on one specific character (no spoilers here!), it becomes far more compelling and emotionally engaging.
At least, that's how I experienced it. I really liked it.
All the way through, the characters in this book feel alive and real. And so do the places. It is excellent writing. But once the story starts to focus on one specific character (no spoilers here!), it becomes far more compelling and emotionally engaging.
At least, that's how I experienced it. I really liked it.
April 27, 2011
An Atlas of Impossible Longing by by Anuradha Roy is without a doubt the best book I have read in the past six months! It is the kind of book that stays with you throughout the day. The kind of book that resonates within your mind as you think, feel, breathe, do your daily chores. The kind of book that makes you stop and take notice of things around you that you would not otherwise stop and take notice of.
An Atlas of Impossible Longing is really three books in one telling stories of three distinctly different time periods but of the same familial personage. It takes place in India in the 1920's through 1950's and it is an insider's view of their caste systems, their social structures, their views on women and men relationships, and so much more.
The way it is written is spellbinding and intriguing. It brings the reader right into the lives of these people. Ms. Roy describes the sights, smells, tastes and feelings as if we were there. I love reading a book where I can learn so much from an author. She is simply mesmerizing!
I was given this book as a free copy from Free Press Book Tours on Book Blogger.
I highly recommend it!
An Atlas of Impossible Longing is really three books in one telling stories of three distinctly different time periods but of the same familial personage. It takes place in India in the 1920's through 1950's and it is an insider's view of their caste systems, their social structures, their views on women and men relationships, and so much more.
The way it is written is spellbinding and intriguing. It brings the reader right into the lives of these people. Ms. Roy describes the sights, smells, tastes and feelings as if we were there. I love reading a book where I can learn so much from an author. She is simply mesmerizing!
I was given this book as a free copy from Free Press Book Tours on Book Blogger.
I highly recommend it!
September 23, 2015
A simple, well-narrated story set in the modern day West Bengal, starting in Colonial India of the 1920s, and ending in the 50s. I got a glimpse of the ordinary lives without much mention of the political upheaval of those days, except for a passing mention of the partition. I got acquainted with a myriad of characters; Mukunda- the orphan, Bakul his playmate, and Nirmal Babu, her father , staying fresh in my memory. Loved the cultural and regional cuisine references.
August 5, 2022
<4.5> im gonna be thinking about this book, this story, these characters, and crumbling houses on river banks for a long, long time.
August 8, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
✨ some books are written just to feed our souls ✨
Anuradha Roy’s An Atlas of Impossible Longing is one of those rare books that breaks your heart and sews it back with silk thread.
🌾 Kananbala’s quiet ache.
🌿 Mukunda & Bakul’s wild bond.
🤧Meera and Nirmal Babu’s untold love.
🏡 Homes that breathe, whisper, remember.
💔 And a love that lingers even in separation.
Some books aren’t written just to be read ,they’re written to be felt, to be lived, to quietly seep into the deepest corners of our souls.
Anuradha Roy’s An Atlas of Impossible Longing is one such book ,a hauntingly lyrical masterpiece that doesn’t just tell a story, but breaks your heart and then mends it back with threads of longing, memory, and love. She plays the game of emotion so masterfully, you’re left gasping ,wounded and healed all at once.
The novel begins quietly, with Amulya Babu settling into life in Songarh. But beneath this stillness, there’s a storm, Kananbala’s silent despair, her desperate need for connection in the wilderness she never chose. Where Amulya found peace in solitude, Kananbala found suffocation. She wasn’t born to wander through silence,she needed companionship, warmth, noise, life. The stillness that soothed her husband slowly turned her into a ghost within her own home.
“𝓗𝓮 𝓱𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓼𝓮 𝓷𝓸𝓲𝓼𝓮𝓼 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓭𝓪𝔂 𝓪𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓯𝓪𝓬𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂. 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓐𝓶𝓾𝓵𝔂𝓪 𝓶𝓮𝓪𝓷𝓽 𝓻𝓮𝓹𝓵𝓮𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷 𝓵𝓸𝓬𝓴𝓮𝓭 𝓚𝓪𝓷𝓪𝓷𝓫𝓪𝓵𝓪 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷 𝓪 𝓫𝓮𝓵𝓵 𝓳𝓪𝓻 𝓼𝓱𝓮 𝓯𝓮𝓵𝓽 𝓼𝓱𝓮 𝓬𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓷𝓸𝓽 𝓹𝓻𝓲𝓼𝓮 𝓸𝓹𝓮𝓷 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓪𝓲𝓻… 𝓬𝓸𝔀‑𝓫𝓮𝓵𝓵𝓼 𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓴𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓰, 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓸𝓬𝓬𝓪𝓼𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓪𝓵 𝓬𝓵𝓸𝓹𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓸𝓯 𝓪 𝓱𝓸𝓻𝓼𝓮’𝓼 𝓱𝓸𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓼, 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓰𝓱𝓸𝓼𝓽𝓵𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓻𝓸𝓫 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓻𝓲𝓫𝓪𝓵 𝓭𝓻𝓾𝓶𝓼 𝓯𝓪𝓻 𝓪𝔀𝓪𝔂.’’
The portrayal of Kananbala’s unraveling isn’t loud or melodramatic ,it’s delicate, tragic, and profoundly human. And Roy doesn’t stop there. She gives life to their sons, Kamal and Nirmal, with such distinct strokes that you can almost feel their presence ,their choices, their fears, their growth. Each character, no matter how briefly they appear, leaves an imprint.
Meera’s story is not just hers ,it’s the story of countless women forgotten by society, whose worth was measured only by their marital status. Roy doesn’t shout this injustice ,she whispers it and somehow, that whisper feels louder than any cry.
In the grand tapestry of the novel, Meera is like a soft thread ,easily missed, but essential to the emotional weight of the story. She reminds us that some longings are never voiced, and some women live entire lives with hearts full of unsaid words.
Roy’s descriptions are nothing short of magic. The homes in Manoharpur and Songarh aren’t just physical spaces ,they’re alive, breathing, sacred. The scent of the earth, the quiet moan of tribal drums in the distance, the whisper of leaves in forgotten corners, she captures it all with aching precision. Every setting in this novel is painted with such care, it feels like stepping into a dream woven with silk and shadow.
And then there’s Bakul and Mukunda. Two children wandering the wild fields of Songarh - innocent, inseparable, untouched by time.
𝗕𝗮𝗸𝘂𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝘂𝗸𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮 𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗺 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗼𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗿𝗵—𝗮𝗻 𝘂𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗯𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆’𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗻 𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁｡
Their bond is soft and powerful like first love often is. Sometimes, separation is the only mirror that reveals the depth of our connection, and through the ache of absence, we learn what it means to truly love.
And, of course, the line that remains etched in every reader’s soul:
“𝐀 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐬. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐞, 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐖𝐚𝐧𝐭, 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭, 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞, 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐥𝐦 𝐬𝐚𝐲, 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐥𝐦 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧g’’
It’s not just a metaphor. It’s a truth ,that all of us carry maps of yearning inside us, routes we may never walk, places of love we may never return to, dreams we silently bury but never quite forget.
Even Calcutta, in its chaos and charm, is painted vividly - a city that breathes between the lines, echoing with nostalgia and noise, memory and motion.
And in the end - after all the ache, the loss, the separations and silences , Roy gives us a gentle, golden kind of redemption. Not a perfect ending, not a fairy tale ,but something quietly beautiful. An ending that makes you believe that even broken things can be made whole again. That love, when it comes back, even in fragments ,is enough to stitch the pieces of a shattered heart.
It’s the kind of book that reminds you why we read at all.
To feel. To ache. To hope.
To remember that longing is a form of love - and sometimes, the most enduring kind. 💗
✨ some books are written just to feed our souls ✨
Anuradha Roy’s An Atlas of Impossible Longing is one of those rare books that breaks your heart and sews it back with silk thread.
🌾 Kananbala’s quiet ache.
🌿 Mukunda & Bakul’s wild bond.
🤧Meera and Nirmal Babu’s untold love.
🏡 Homes that breathe, whisper, remember.
💔 And a love that lingers even in separation.
Some books aren’t written just to be read ,they’re written to be felt, to be lived, to quietly seep into the deepest corners of our souls.
Anuradha Roy’s An Atlas of Impossible Longing is one such book ,a hauntingly lyrical masterpiece that doesn’t just tell a story, but breaks your heart and then mends it back with threads of longing, memory, and love. She plays the game of emotion so masterfully, you’re left gasping ,wounded and healed all at once.
The novel begins quietly, with Amulya Babu settling into life in Songarh. But beneath this stillness, there’s a storm, Kananbala’s silent despair, her desperate need for connection in the wilderness she never chose. Where Amulya found peace in solitude, Kananbala found suffocation. She wasn’t born to wander through silence,she needed companionship, warmth, noise, life. The stillness that soothed her husband slowly turned her into a ghost within her own home.
“𝓗𝓮 𝓱𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓼𝓮 𝓷𝓸𝓲𝓼𝓮𝓼 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓭𝓪𝔂 𝓪𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓯𝓪𝓬𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂. 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓲𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓽𝓸 𝓐𝓶𝓾𝓵𝔂𝓪 𝓶𝓮𝓪𝓷𝓽 𝓻𝓮𝓹𝓵𝓮𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷 𝓵𝓸𝓬𝓴𝓮𝓭 𝓚𝓪𝓷𝓪𝓷𝓫𝓪𝓵𝓪 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷 𝓪 𝓫𝓮𝓵𝓵 𝓳𝓪𝓻 𝓼𝓱𝓮 𝓯𝓮𝓵𝓽 𝓼𝓱𝓮 𝓬𝓸𝓾𝓵𝓭 𝓷𝓸𝓽 𝓹𝓻𝓲𝓼𝓮 𝓸𝓹𝓮𝓷 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓪𝓲𝓻… 𝓬𝓸𝔀‑𝓫𝓮𝓵𝓵𝓼 𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓴𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓰, 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓸𝓬𝓬𝓪𝓼𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓪𝓵 𝓬𝓵𝓸𝓹𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓸𝓯 𝓪 𝓱𝓸𝓻𝓼𝓮’𝓼 𝓱𝓸𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓼, 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓰𝓱𝓸𝓼𝓽𝓵𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓻𝓸𝓫 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓻𝓲𝓫𝓪𝓵 𝓭𝓻𝓾𝓶𝓼 𝓯𝓪𝓻 𝓪𝔀𝓪𝔂.’’
The portrayal of Kananbala’s unraveling isn’t loud or melodramatic ,it’s delicate, tragic, and profoundly human. And Roy doesn’t stop there. She gives life to their sons, Kamal and Nirmal, with such distinct strokes that you can almost feel their presence ,their choices, their fears, their growth. Each character, no matter how briefly they appear, leaves an imprint.
Meera’s story is not just hers ,it’s the story of countless women forgotten by society, whose worth was measured only by their marital status. Roy doesn’t shout this injustice ,she whispers it and somehow, that whisper feels louder than any cry.
In the grand tapestry of the novel, Meera is like a soft thread ,easily missed, but essential to the emotional weight of the story. She reminds us that some longings are never voiced, and some women live entire lives with hearts full of unsaid words.
Roy’s descriptions are nothing short of magic. The homes in Manoharpur and Songarh aren’t just physical spaces ,they’re alive, breathing, sacred. The scent of the earth, the quiet moan of tribal drums in the distance, the whisper of leaves in forgotten corners, she captures it all with aching precision. Every setting in this novel is painted with such care, it feels like stepping into a dream woven with silk and shadow.
And then there’s Bakul and Mukunda. Two children wandering the wild fields of Songarh - innocent, inseparable, untouched by time.
𝗕𝗮𝗸𝘂𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝘂𝗸𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮 𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗺 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗼𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗿𝗵—𝗮𝗻 𝘂𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗯𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆’𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗻 𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁｡
Their bond is soft and powerful like first love often is. Sometimes, separation is the only mirror that reveals the depth of our connection, and through the ache of absence, we learn what it means to truly love.
And, of course, the line that remains etched in every reader’s soul:
“𝐀 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐬. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐫𝐞, 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐖𝐚𝐧𝐭, 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭, 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞, 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞, 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐥𝐦 𝐬𝐚𝐲, 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐥𝐦 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧g’’
It’s not just a metaphor. It’s a truth ,that all of us carry maps of yearning inside us, routes we may never walk, places of love we may never return to, dreams we silently bury but never quite forget.
Even Calcutta, in its chaos and charm, is painted vividly - a city that breathes between the lines, echoing with nostalgia and noise, memory and motion.
And in the end - after all the ache, the loss, the separations and silences , Roy gives us a gentle, golden kind of redemption. Not a perfect ending, not a fairy tale ,but something quietly beautiful. An ending that makes you believe that even broken things can be made whole again. That love, when it comes back, even in fragments ,is enough to stitch the pieces of a shattered heart.
It’s the kind of book that reminds you why we read at all.
To feel. To ache. To hope.
To remember that longing is a form of love - and sometimes, the most enduring kind. 💗
May 9, 2023
o carte duioasa, ca un poem, despre 3 generatii din India care trec prin viata intr-o formula de tihna si zgomot, de durere si de bucurii.
trei parti care arata istoria unei familii, dramele ei, fericirea, tragediile, zgomotul, lumina si intunericul.
o saga de familie, scrisa foarte frumos, in care descrierile naturale se contopesc cu cele ale simtamintelor, pe fundalul unei Indii care trece prin propria schimbare.
trei parti care arata istoria unei familii, dramele ei, fericirea, tragediile, zgomotul, lumina si intunericul.
o saga de familie, scrisa foarte frumos, in care descrierile naturale se contopesc cu cele ale simtamintelor, pe fundalul unei Indii care trece prin propria schimbare.
October 28, 2014
What if a book offers you all those things which you have read and liked.. .. that is what this book brought for me... a Bengali author, setting of 1920s India, serenity of rural Bengal, hustle-bustle and noise of Calcutta, old mansions, story of three generations, family feuds, partition and Hindu Muslim relationships and fading British era,... All this sounded clichés but the newness of this novel is what makes it unique. Each aspect, character and moment is so well thought and well phrased that it creates a scene from the old Satyajit Ray’s film.
The story moves from generation to generation and each generation brings with it its own set of aspirations, desires, dilemmas, challenges and fears. The will power of the patriarch to establish and run his business away from commercial and familiar comforts of Calcutta, loneliness of the wife who has never spoken a rude word in her life ending into unconscious bouts of abusing. The choice of a man between home or the desires of wandering and digging history, a dying mother and her legacy of a house and name to her child, the family of strangers with closer ties to those not bound by blood, the struggles of the orphan and the childless, the bonds of friendship and childhood memories. Growing up and leaving only to return. How life comes a full circle, how rivers change paths and cross paths of two strangers separating and meeting again.
The book has this aura of peace and soulfulness which touches you and leaves you with a heart warming feeling of leaving and returning, of loving and longing.
The story moves from generation to generation and each generation brings with it its own set of aspirations, desires, dilemmas, challenges and fears. The will power of the patriarch to establish and run his business away from commercial and familiar comforts of Calcutta, loneliness of the wife who has never spoken a rude word in her life ending into unconscious bouts of abusing. The choice of a man between home or the desires of wandering and digging history, a dying mother and her legacy of a house and name to her child, the family of strangers with closer ties to those not bound by blood, the struggles of the orphan and the childless, the bonds of friendship and childhood memories. Growing up and leaving only to return. How life comes a full circle, how rivers change paths and cross paths of two strangers separating and meeting again.
The book has this aura of peace and soulfulness which touches you and leaves you with a heart warming feeling of leaving and returning, of loving and longing.
November 29, 2017
3.5/5
I picked up with book at a second bookshop for real cheap and it was one of those reads which I went into without any idea what the book is about. And I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this book.
At heart its a family saga across three generations shifting between Songarh, a town in north-eastern India and Calcutta, starting from the early 1900's to right about the time India got her independence. What stood out for me with this book is the way the different characters in this story are portrayed. Very real, believable and flawed. The trials and tribulations, the feeling of guilt, the longing for something not within reach, forbidden love, the inadequacies of life, and yet the fulfilling nature of it, desires and much more. She really captures the family dynamics, subtle implications of the caste system at the time, the inherent religious differences, incredibly well. I could picture all the scenes as I was reading, very clearly, like a running movie in my head. Anuradha Roy's prose is beautiful without being overindulgent.
While most of the novel is consistently a feeling of melancholy, it never gets depressing and Roy does manage to end it with an optimistic note. For a debut, I think it's absolutely well done!
I picked up with book at a second bookshop for real cheap and it was one of those reads which I went into without any idea what the book is about. And I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this book.
At heart its a family saga across three generations shifting between Songarh, a town in north-eastern India and Calcutta, starting from the early 1900's to right about the time India got her independence. What stood out for me with this book is the way the different characters in this story are portrayed. Very real, believable and flawed. The trials and tribulations, the feeling of guilt, the longing for something not within reach, forbidden love, the inadequacies of life, and yet the fulfilling nature of it, desires and much more. She really captures the family dynamics, subtle implications of the caste system at the time, the inherent religious differences, incredibly well. I could picture all the scenes as I was reading, very clearly, like a running movie in my head. Anuradha Roy's prose is beautiful without being overindulgent.
While most of the novel is consistently a feeling of melancholy, it never gets depressing and Roy does manage to end it with an optimistic note. For a debut, I think it's absolutely well done!
July 28, 2017
4.5 stars.
Just finished this wonderful book and I immediately want to be back in between those pages, in Bengal, with those characters that I fell in love with.
You can click on the book and read what it's about, I won't detail that on here. This is not a fast paced story. The writing is so so beautiful, almost poetic. It has been described to be flowery but I didn't think so at all. I adore stories that span generations and are told over a long period of time; this novel does just that in an extremely elegant and eloquent way. India was bought alive with strong yet tender characters, in a fascinating read.
Just finished this wonderful book and I immediately want to be back in between those pages, in Bengal, with those characters that I fell in love with.
You can click on the book and read what it's about, I won't detail that on here. This is not a fast paced story. The writing is so so beautiful, almost poetic. It has been described to be flowery but I didn't think so at all. I adore stories that span generations and are told over a long period of time; this novel does just that in an extremely elegant and eloquent way. India was bought alive with strong yet tender characters, in a fascinating read.
January 21, 2023
Starts off on a very promising note and the pace of the narrative is sustained throughout the book, but towards the end it tenders to waffle and meander and has the most unsatisfactory denouement. The scandalous utterings of the senile matriarch portray an accurate rendering of a patient with Tourette’s Syndrome.
September 28, 2020
AN ATLAS OF IMPOSSIBLE LONGING (2008) traces the intertwining lives of the inhabitants of a vast and isolated house on the outskirts of a small town in Bengal. It is a story of love, loss, madness and murder spanning the period of India’s turbulent history between 1907 and the mid 1950s and three generations of an Indian family.
Anuradha Roy chronicles the lives, loves and losses that affect the family members, focusing on the story of Mukunda, a foundling orphan boy, and Bakul, the rowdy motherless daughter of the house. Bakul and Mukunda grow up together like siblings and develop an unshakeable bond that becomes threatened when they reach adolescence, in part because of the question of religion and caste.
AN ATLAS OF IMPOSSIBLE LONGING is also a true portrait of India, as it moves from colonization, independence, Partition and beyond, dealing with subjects such as the caste system, the unfair treatment of widows, the Hindu-Muslim rivalry and the riots near the Partition years. It is an evocative novel with a strong sense of place, lyrical descriptions and intense relationships, all beautifully rendered. A story to lose yourself in, especially recommended for lovers of family sagas, fans of WUTHERING HEIGHTS and readers interested in Indian literature.
Anuradha Roy chronicles the lives, loves and losses that affect the family members, focusing on the story of Mukunda, a foundling orphan boy, and Bakul, the rowdy motherless daughter of the house. Bakul and Mukunda grow up together like siblings and develop an unshakeable bond that becomes threatened when they reach adolescence, in part because of the question of religion and caste.
AN ATLAS OF IMPOSSIBLE LONGING is also a true portrait of India, as it moves from colonization, independence, Partition and beyond, dealing with subjects such as the caste system, the unfair treatment of widows, the Hindu-Muslim rivalry and the riots near the Partition years. It is an evocative novel with a strong sense of place, lyrical descriptions and intense relationships, all beautifully rendered. A story to lose yourself in, especially recommended for lovers of family sagas, fans of WUTHERING HEIGHTS and readers interested in Indian literature.
May 4, 2011
An excellent book! Very well written! The story line had me mesmerized. I empathised with all the characters which means that the author captured the essence of the person. One could see the progression of insanity in Kananbala and understand why she became how she did. I liked the beginning more than the ending. It is a love story and I wonder if the author tried to rush into ending the story at the end. I was dissapointed that Mukanda did not do more for Suleiman Khan. Mukanda did come out as a weak man in the end; succumbing to the intolerable business of extorting wealth at the expense of the weak. He also let down his family and gave up his son too easily. He grew up without a family and he left his son in an environment to grow up without a father. It was a romantic end with Bakul and Mukunda coming together. But what about his wife and son? They were not at fault. Similarly, Mukunda used Suleiman Khan's love, property and ended up taking advantage of him. Maybe the story is realistic - people today are living in a dog eats dog environment. A must read book!
June 21, 2016
جميلة وخلال ٥٠٠ صفحة لايمكن للملل أن يتسلل إليك بل شيئا ما يجذبك إليها ربما كمية الحنين فيها..
February 19, 2025
I don’t generally read contemporary fiction because the constant need for the authors to tell the story “in a different way” or flex their artistic prowess with big vocabulary words that barely fit in the story annoys me, and I sometimes ran into that with this book, but there was enough I really liked about the book to offset it and keep me engaged. The book follows different storylines in different parts and does a good job of capturing multiple peoples unique life experience as well as the complex moral ambiguities that can be encountered throughout life. My favourite story was probably the first one, which made it a little harder to continue through the others but they were both really interesting too when I gave them a chance.
October 11, 2024
3.5/5
I was interested in the book by it's title itself. It is almost universal, the concept of impossible longing. I loved the first 2/3rd of the book, however, I felt that in the end it lost its punch for me. I actually read the last 1/3rd after one month.
It manages to capture indianness very well. Even though the story is set a century ago, that feeling remains palpable - and worth exploring.
I was interested in the book by it's title itself. It is almost universal, the concept of impossible longing. I loved the first 2/3rd of the book, however, I felt that in the end it lost its punch for me. I actually read the last 1/3rd after one month.
It manages to capture indianness very well. Even though the story is set a century ago, that feeling remains palpable - and worth exploring.
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