An NPR Best Book of the Year
A Best Book of the Month (ABC News, GMA.com, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, Ms. Magazine, BookRiot, PopSugar, The A.V. Club)
“Monumental…A far-reaching love story…Malhotra’s detailed world-building gives the narrative sensory layers and textured depths. Moving from the early 1900s to the present day, she explores how Partition continues to be a living, breathing catastrophe and how the violence and trauma have been inherited by later generations, no matter where they live now.”
—NPR
“A modern-day Romeo and Juliet. A man and woman in love end up on opposite sides of the Indian and Pakistan split in this tale of countries and countrymen—and the lengths we'll all go for love.”
—GMA.com
“Malhotra’s poetic tale of remembrance blends artistry and history to honor the inspiration of love.”
—Christian Science Monitor
“A Hindu perfumer and a Muslim calligrapher fall in love, both with each other and with their ancient crafts, against a backdrop of Indian Partition in this ravishing historical romance.”
—USA Today
“Masterful…Detailed, opulent…The Book of Everlasting Things is a novel about remembrance and memory as much as it is about Partition…By focusing on just one family, and one person’s experience of Partition, we get an understanding of what the official recounts or academic monographs don’t always capture in the same way: the deeply human cost of both living through Partition and moving on from it.”
—Chicago Review of Books
“Gorgeous and evocative. The novel shines in its sensory details, particularly in regard to smells, showing how perfumers take in the world. It’s also strong in its sense of place...This is a long, meaty story with an old-fashioned pace. It’s a novel to sink into as Malhotra spins a bitter-sweet family saga of love, loss and connection.”
—BookPage
“Award-winning historian Aanchal Malhotra turns her expertise on Partition (she’s penned two books on it) into moving historical fiction in her debut novel…A star-crossed love story.”
—The A.V. Club
“[A] beautiful love story.”
—BookRiot
“Extraordinary.”
—Ms. Magazine
“Mesmerizing…At the heart of Malhotra’s sweeping debut novel is an indelible love story…A transcendent study of the blurring of personal and political, as ordinary people deal with catastrophic historical events.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A long and luxurious tale of love, loss, memory, and place, told against a backdrop of tumultuous historical events…It will be difficult indeed to forget this exquisite story.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
“A majestic, evocative exploration of the persistence of memory and the human connections that transcend even death.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“Malhotra’s prose is sensuous and rich, and the ease with which she conjures a world that no longer exists is impressive…The novel is, above all else, a meditation on memory, the preservation of intimate history, loss, and love…A quiet and moving portrait of eternal love and remembrance.”
—Kirkus
"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, internationally bestselling author of The Mountains Sing
“The Book of Everlasting Things is a novel to be savored 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
"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
“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, author of Partition Voices
“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, 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. Malhotra has proven herself a detail driven researcher and 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
★ 10/01/2022
DEBUT New Delhi-born artist and oral historian Malhotra has written extensively about the 1947 Partition of India, including the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize-shortlisted Remnants of Partition: 21 Objects from a Continent Divided, and she brings that knowledge to her first novel, rendering history in human, often poignant images. One January morning in 1938, Samir Vij, apprentice perfumer and a Hindu, meets Firdaus Khan, calligrapher's apprentice and a Muslim, in his family's ittar (a fragrant essential oil) shop in Lahore. Time passes, and their friendship deepens into love, until they find themselves on opposite sides of the border after Partition. The story glides back and forth in time, through two World Wars and the Partition and the recent past. Secrets are revealed, the intricacies of calligraphy and perfume-making are described, and the consequences of decisions made are recounted. Near the novel's end, Samir sums it up: "It is difficult to forget, but it is even harder to keep remembering." It will be difficult indeed to forget this exquisite story. VERDICT A long and luxurious tale of love, loss, memory, and place, told against a backdrop of tumultuous historical events.—Carolyn M. Mulac
2022-11-16
Two lovers navigate their lives as they are split into separate nations.
Malhotra’s debut novel starts off in pre-Partition Lahore, where Samir Vij, a 10-year-old Hindu boy, inherits his paternal uncle Vivek's olfactory prowess. Much of the plot—spanning 80 years and several cities—is accentuated by this inheritance. The Vij family’s perfumery; Samir’s love for a young Muslim girl named Firdaus Khan, who's a calligrapher; and the communal riots marred with smoke and blood in the days preceding the 1947 Partition are all deftly described through Samir’s nose. Malhotra's prose is sensuous and rich, and the ease with which she conjures a world that no longer exists is impressive. Sometimes the prose gets heavy-handed, though. In the first few pages, when young Samir inhales the smell of tuberose: “All that surrounded him—the river, the legends, the sand, the breeze, the morning light, even his family—dissolved. Everything solid melted into air.” This seems too transcendental so early in the novel. Perhaps the hyperbole would have served a purpose later, when tuberose was not just an intoxicating smell, but a memory of the past. While the Partition of India and creation of Pakistan mold the shape of Samir's and Firdaus’ lives, the novel is, above all else, a meditation on memory, the preservation of intimate history, loss, and love. The story is teeming with these themes, but the jumps from India to France, from Samir's perspective to Firdaus' and the years skipped in between, feel abrupt and simplistic. Perhaps this is what Malhotra set out to achieve—to create a present so embedded in the past that it doesn’t make sense on its own.
A quiet and moving portrait of eternal love and remembrance.
Deepti Gupta performs this lush historical novel set against the backdrop of the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. A Hindu teen named Samir, who is working in his family's perfume shop in 1930s Lahore, falls in love with Firdaus, the daughter of a Muslim calligrapher. As tensions between Muslims and Hindus increase, leading up to Partition, Samir and Firdaus believe their love can withstand anything. Gupta captures the deep emotional connection between the two young people, making listeners feel hopeful that, in some way, Samir and Firdaus will find a way to be together. As listeners follow the pair through the decades and see the long-term effects of the partition, Gupta's performance complements this sweeping story, dazzling with every new chapter and plot twist. K.D.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Deepti Gupta performs this lush historical novel set against the backdrop of the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. A Hindu teen named Samir, who is working in his family's perfume shop in 1930s Lahore, falls in love with Firdaus, the daughter of a Muslim calligrapher. As tensions between Muslims and Hindus increase, leading up to Partition, Samir and Firdaus believe their love can withstand anything. Gupta captures the deep emotional connection between the two young people, making listeners feel hopeful that, in some way, Samir and Firdaus will find a way to be together. As listeners follow the pair through the decades and see the long-term effects of the partition, Gupta's performance complements this sweeping story, dazzling with every new chapter and plot twist. K.D.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
