The Book of Everlasting Things, by Aanchal Malhotra

HarperCollins

presents

Bestselling historian Aanchal Malhotra’s luminous debut novel

The Book of Everlasting Things

A book that will linger in the reader’s mind like the notes of an unforgettable perfume

Publishing in India and the US simultaneously.

 Told against a backdrop of tumultuous historical events,
The Book of Everlasting Things is an exquisite tale of love, loss, memory, and place.

With dazzling advance praise from some of the best-known literary names, this much-awaited debut novel tells a memorable love story set around the 1947 Partition.

HB | Fiction | 472 pp | Rs 699

Releasing 27 December 2022
Available Wherever Books Are Sold

 

Author Aanchal Malhotra says, “The Book of Everlasting Things is a novel about two families – one of perfumers and the other of calligraphers – entwined in each others’ lives for nearly a century by way of friendship, artistry, memory, war, betrayal, guilt, longing, exile, and above all, love. Navigating battlefields and flower fields, olfactory and amorous impulses, it is a book guided by the senses.

Since the spring of 2017, this novel has consumed me; its characters often feeling more real than reality itself, its landscape built from borrowed, researched, and dreamt up terrains. Writing it has been a demanding yet infinitely rewarding process. HarperCollins India has always been the natural home for my non-fiction work, and I’m delighted that my debut novel has found a place on their prestigious list.”

Udayan Mitra, Executive Publisher, HarperCollins India, says, “The Book of Everlasting Things is the story of many things, as life itself is: it is a story of love, longing and separation; of family, loyalty, fate; of war, exile and art. But I would say, more than anything else, it is a book about memories – how they are made, how they live on, and are transformed over time. An event that shapes the narrative of Aanchal Malhotra’s remarkable first novel is that of Partition: and its memories cast their shadow over the novel, just as they have over the shared histories of the subcontinent and the lives of so many individuals. The scope and span of The Book of Everlasting Things is ambitious and epic – it is a powerful and engaging saga that builds on the fascinating history of modern South Asia. It is a book that I am sure readers will return to again and again, to rediscover the lingering fragrance that its pages contain. We at HarperCollins India are truly delighted to be able to bring this exceptional work of fiction to readers in the seventy-fifth year of Independence – and of Partition.”

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

LAHORE, 1938.

Drawn by an intoxicating smell, Samir Vij first locks eyes with Firdaus Khan through the rows of perfume bottles in his family’s ittar shop in Anarkali Bazaar. Over the years that follow, the perfumer and the illuminator of manuscripts fall in love, their story written in dark and delicate ink.

However, with the 1947 Partition and the birth of two independent nations, Samir, a Hindu, becomes Indian and Firdaus, a Muslim, becomes Pakistani. Bound by family and fate, torn between duty and desire, as the two lovers move farther away from one other, they must decide how much of their memories to hold on to…

An assured debut novel from historian Aanchal Malhotra, The Book of Everlasting Things is both intimate and sweeping. A story spanning continents and generations, braiding the threads of the past to the future, here is a book which will linger in the reader’s mind like the notes of an unforgettable perfume.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aanchal Malhotra is a writer and oral historian from New Delhi. She is the co-founder of the Museum of Material Memory, and the author of two critically acclaimed books, Remnants of a Separation and In the Language of Remembering, that explore the human history and generational impact of the 1947 Partition. The Book of Everlasting Things is her debut novel.

 

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

‘Tender, compassionate, extravagantly inventive. A family epic that tells the spiritual biography of a nation. The research that went into this novel is visible on every page, and I am full of admiration for its attentiveness to the infinite minutiae of love.’

—Jeet Thayil, award-winning author of Narcopolis and The Book of Chocolate Saints

‘An immersive delight, The Book of Everlasting Things enlivens history and the senses equally. Utterly transporting, it evokes with charm and precision a bygone era, bursting from these pages with restored beauty. The book traverses more than a century with astonishing grace. Aanchal Malhotra has proven herself a detail-driven researcher and an empathetic historian, but this, her gorgeous, cinematic debut novel, stamps her place as a sublime storyteller.’

—Karuna Ezara Parikh, author of The Heart Asks Pleasure First and Where Stories Gather

‘At once sweeping and intimate. With gorgeous prose and careful research, Malhotra brings to life a world rich with Indian perfumery, Urdu calligraphy, and a romance that defies time and space. A stunning book that reminds you of what it is to fall in love.’

—Jenny Tinghui Zhang, author of Four Treasures of the Sky

‘Spanning generations and continents, Malhotra’s debut is both thought-provoking and deliciously romantic. The Book of Everlasting Things will awaken your senses and leave you captivated until the last page.’

—Lara Prescott, New York Times bestselling author of The Secrets We Kept

‘Magical, illuminating, and thought-provoking! There is true love, longing, loss and healing inside The Book of Everlasting Things. Malhotra writes with the power of a novelist who is the master of her craft.’

—Nguyen Phan Que Mai, bestselling author of The Mountains Sing

‘The Book of Everlasting Things is a novel to be savoured for its details, for the texture of lived life in Lahore before Partition, for its evocations of characters and their artistic sensibilities. This is a mesmerizing recreation of a lost world.’

—Karan Mahajan, author of The Association of Small Bombs

‘A stunning debut novel. The Book of Everlasting Things is a powerful story of what we choose to remember and forget, of how history shapes us, and the endurance of love. It is a book that will touch your heart and overwhelm your senses, and stay with you long after you have read it.’

—Kavita Puri, award-winning journalist and author of Partition Voices

‘Spellbinding and lyrical, as richly layered as the scents that connect us to our deepest memories, The Book of Everlasting Things is a story about division, loss, and the love that transcends the boundaries of lifetimes. A magical read.’

—Jennifer Rosner, award-winning author of The Yellow Bird Sings and Once We Were Home

 

 

 

For reviews, excerpts, interviews and more information, please contact Shivendra Singh at
shivendra.singh@harpercollins.co.in