anuradha roy

All the Lives We Never Lived won the Tata Book of the Year Award on the 18th of November in Bombay, India. Speaking of the book, the judges said that its prose was "glittering" and that the book "did not put one foot wrong" in dealing with complex and varying themes. Also on the shortlist were Janice Pariat's Nine-Chambered Heart and Tabish Khair's Night of Happiness.

20 November:  Publication Day in the US and Canada.  The pre-publication reviews have been wonderful, and the book has featured in several lists of essential reading, including TIME and WASHINGTON POST . It has also been listed in Bustle , Entertainment Weekly , The Millions , LitHub , Afar , and Shelf Awareness , among others. Book Riot 's quirky Horoscopes and Book Recommendations for November recommends it especially for Librans! "Roy’s skillful blending–of fact and fiction, of personal and political, and of suspense and reward–creates a rich and layered read. But the modern resonances of rising nationalism, in India and beyond, ensure that Roy’s story of what happened in Muntazir transcends its own pages. “Once the letter was read,” Myshkin says, “it would be over and I would have to start waiting again.” It’s a feeling readers may well share." Naina Bajekal, Time "Lyrical, subtle, [and] finely observant... A novel of history, both global and...

SESSION: FEAST AND FICTION, AT THE BRIDGES, BALI A PREVIOUS VISITOR TO WALTER SPIES' HOUSE IN ISEH: DAVID BOWIE AT VILLA ISEH, BALI, WALTER SPIES' OLD BAMBOO HUT IS NOW A BEAUTIFUL BOUTIQUE HOTEL SESSION: WHAT A MAP CUTS UP; ABOUT BOUNDARIES, NATIONALISM, ART, WRITING SESSION: CARL HOFFMAN SPEAKING SPEAKING ON THE WILD MEN OF BORNEO NOTES AND THOUGHTS A SISTERHOOD OF GREAT READERS SESSION: FEAST AND FICTION; FATIMA BHUTTO TALKING ABOUT THE RUNAWAYS SESSION: THE BIG READ. STORYTELLING, PLAIN AND SIMPLE QUESTIONS, ANSWERS SESSION: FEAST & FICTION, GAIL JONES SPEAKING ON THE DEATH OF NOAH GLASS UNASKED QUESTIONS SESSION: ISLANDS OF INSPIRATION  WHERE WILL BUCKINGHAM, CARL HOFFMAN AND I TALKED ABOUT THE CONNECTION OUR BOOKS HAVE TO INDONESIA MY BOOK WILL JOIN THE THE OTHERS IN THE WALTER SPIES BOOKSHELF IN HIS OLD HOME IN ISEH SESSION: FEAST AND FICTION. A MEMENTO SARASWATI, GODDESS OF LEARNING A...

This has been a dizzying couple of weeks. All the Lives we Never Lived was shortlisted, on 3rd October, for the JCB Literature Prize. And today it has been announced that it is part of the longlist for DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.   "The longlist represents the best of South Asian fiction writing over the last year and includes submissions from a diverse mix of publishers and authors of different backgrounds writing on a wide range of issues and themes. The novels include stunning portrayals of migration, war and the pain of displacement, poignant love stories, the exploration of new found relationships and identities, and vivification of the personal struggles, hopes and aspirations that symbolize the urgent and divisive realities of contemporary South Asian life," the Prize committee said in a statement. Apart from authors based in South Asia, it also features those based outside the region who have brought alive the subtle nuances of South Asian life and cult...

A couple of months to go before its US release, All the Lives We Never Lived has a starred review in Publisher's Weekly . Describing it as a "lush and lyrical fusion of history and storytelling", the review goes on to say: "This mesmerizing exploration of the darker consequences of freedom, love, and loyalty is an astonishing display of Roy’s literary prowess" Read the complete review here . Chigozie Obioma, author of The Fishermen , which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize said: " All the Lives We Never Lived is a moving and beautiful story of loss, of the lives of those beloved to us. What makes this novel so special is the sinuous way Anuradha Roy seamlessly and masterfully shuttles between time, overlaying the past with the present, mystery with knowledge to cumulatively create a brilliant tapestry of that is the story." A number of newspapers and book sites listed this as one of their books to look forward to this Fall. ...

The longlist for the first JCB Prize for Literature contained ten books, among them All the Lives We Never Lived. Describing the book, the jury remarked: "This beautiful novel, set in the southeast Asia of the 1930s, evokes beautiful imagery of places and landscapes. It does its work quietly and with great subtlety, but it is a novel of big ideas." Read more about it here . The JCB Prize for Literature is a Rs 25-lakh award presented each year to a distinguished work of fiction by an Indian author, as selected by the jury.The shortlist will be announced on 3 October. Read more about the other books on the longlist here .

In 2016, I went to Sri Lanka for the first time, for the Galle Book Festival, and was interviewed for one of the panels by Ameena Hussein. She was dazzling -- widely read, perceptive, quick-thinking, free-wheeling. It was one of the best experiences I've ever had of being in a literary event. Through the course of the festival, and during one of their trips to India, I had the chance to get to know Ameena and her partner Sam Perera better. Much as Rukun Advani and I run Permanent Black, they run an independent publishing house, Perera-Hussein . Besides this, Ameena is a writer, author of The Moon in the Water (long listed for the Man Asia Prize) and two award-winning short story collections. Perera-Hussein was established in December 2003, and has a list that includes writers such as Gananath Obeysekere, Nayomi Munaweera, and Nayanjot Lahiri. And this month, Perera-Hussein published All the Lives We Never Lived in Sri Lanka. It is out now in paperback, priced 1250 Sri Lank...