The Book of Everlasting Things

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.