The Far Field

By Madhuri Vijay

₹ 599.00 inclusive of all taxes

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About the book

Winner of the JCB Prize for Literature 2019. Shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2019.Shortlisted for the Tata Literature Live! First Book Award (Fiction) 2019.In the wake of her mother’s death, Shalini, a privileged, naive and restless young woman from Bangalore, sets out for a remote village in 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 track him down. But as soon as Shalini arrives, she is confronted with the region’s politics, as well as the tangled history of the local family that takes her in. As 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 have dangerous repercussions for the people she has come to love.With rare acumen and evocative prose, in The Far Field Madhuri Vijay gives a potent critique of Indian politics and class prejudice through the lens of a guileless outsider, while also offering up a profound meditation on grief, guilt and the limits of compassion.

Pages: 444

Available in: Paperback

Language: English

Madhuri Vijay

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

‘ Equal parts love story, war story, and family intrigue…Only the very best novels are experienced, as opposed to merely read, and this is one of those rare and brilliant novels.’ - Ben Fountain

‘Remarkable…Few novels generate enough power to transform their characters, fewer still their readers. The Far Field does both.’ - Anthony Marra

‘Consuming…Vijay’s command of storytelling is so supple that it’s easy to discount the stealth with which she constructs her tale, shifting time frames with seamless ease and juggling a wealth of characters who cling to the heart.’ - NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

‘Vijay probes grand themes – tribalism, despotism, betrayal, death, resurrection – in exquisite but unflowery prose, and with sincere sentiment but little sentimentality.’ - NEW YORKER

‘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.’ - WASHINGTON POST

‘A strikingly unusual book full of beauty and surprise.’ - Sonia Faleiro

‘Ingeniously conceived and elegantly written…a first novel of startling accomplishment.’ - PANKAJ MISHRA

‘ 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

"Madhuri Vijay’s characters are compelling and beguiling, and she superbly balances the complexity of her narrator against the conflict in Kashmir without allowing the latter to be reduced to a mere backdrop. The Far Field is incisive and utterly enthralling.” - Siddhartha Deb, author of The Beautiful and the Damned