This Is Salvaged: Stories

by Vauhini Vara

Stories of uncanny originality from a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction Pushing intimacy to its limits in prose of unearthly beauty, Vauhini Vara explores the nature of being a child, parent, friend, sibling, neighbor, or lover, and the relationships between self and others.

A young girl reads the encyclopedia to her elderly neighbor, who is descending into dementia. A pair of teenagers seek intimacy as phone-sex operators. A competitive sibling tries to rise above the drunken mess of her own life to become a loving aunt. One sister consumes the ashes of another. And, in the title story, an experimental artist takes on his most ambitious project constructing a life-size ark according to the Bible’s specifications. In a world defined by estrangement, where is communion to be found? The characters in This Is Salvaged , unmoored in turbulence, are searching fervently for meaning, through one another.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Literature, Anthologies, Audiobook

216 pages, Paperback

First published September 26, 2023

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) The epigraph is from the two pages of laughter (“Ha!”) in “Real Estate,” one of the stories of Birds of America by Lorrie Moore. Vara shares Moore’s themes, which are the stuff of literary fiction generally – adolescence, friendship, ageing, memory, romantic relationships – but also her tone of dark comedy. The death of a sibling recurs. In “The Irates,” teenage Swati, whose brother died of cancer, and her friend Lydia get phone sales jobs through the Chinese restaurant where they go for egg rolls. In “I, Buffalo,” Sheila tries to hide her alcoholism when her sister Priya comes for a visit with Sheila’s brother-in-law and niece. “The girl” in “You Are Not Alone” is delighted to spend her eighth birthday in Florida with her estranged father, but less so when she learns there’s a stepmother figure in the picture. The women of “Sibyls” look after an elderly neighbour with dementia. The querulous child in “Unknown Unknowns” reminded me of Good Talk by Mira Jacob.

My two favourites were the title story, about building a Noah’s Ark replica, and “What Next,” about a woman accompanying her teenage daughter to meet her father for the first time. A few stories didn’t stand out, and while I liked the writing, this didn’t necessarily feel like a cohesive collection.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Stitching Ghost · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing style was pretty nice and it was an overall pleasant read, unfortunately it was also not particularly memorable one for me and a couple of the story stood out to me for feeling incomplete. That being said it was a quick read with a decent variety of characters and I would probably read this author again if it was in long form.

[Margot · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am very glad I read this ARC collection over time - never reading more than one at any sitting. The stories very feel intimate - all but one is told in the first person. Vara tackles a myriad of themes: grief, belonging, but mostly the question, how do we survive in this world and manage to salvage anything meaningful? Indeed these are not exactly uplifting stories but Vara's accurate observations of human nature and her polished way with words combine to make this a worthwhile collection. The only story I did not care for at all was The Eighteen Girls. I felt she resorted too much on shock value at the end.

[A.J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories are often hit or miss and this was a major hit. Each individual story was like a punch. I literally cant stop thinking about the depiction of grief in "The Irates" which is the first story in the book. This was a series of quite honestly sorta dark or at least real seeming stories that made me uncomfortable in a good way. Many stories felt as if they we're daring me to look away and at the same time were so compelling that I couldn't help but keep reading. I really liked this and would recommend it, especially if you're looking for Asian authors to look into.

Thank you to NetGalley, W. W Norton and Company, and Vauhini Vara for this digital ARC.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely little collection of short stories. Each has a sense of loneliness and insecurity, but also wanting to belong and find meaning. There’s an intense look at grief and finding hope in the darkest of times. After finishing a majority of the stories, I just wanted to stare at the wall and think about what I read.

Every story was at least 4 stars on their own. My favorites were Unknown Unknowns, Eighteen Girls, and The Hormone Hypothesis. The stories at a surface level are enjoyable, but truly feel personal and emotional. There were such tender and heart-wrenching moments, but it was interspersed with laughs that provided relief. I was a little unsure what to expect going into this, but I loved every second. I definitely recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley, W. W Norton and Company, and Vauhini Vara for this digital ARC. My opinions are freely given. Pub date September 26, 2023

[Ivory Reads · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was a pain to read. The stories were hard to follow as they were not interesting. Death was a common theme. I did not enjoy.

[Lexy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

[Miki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I buddy read this collection with Arianne, and I LOVED this collection!

[Bea · Rating 3 out of 5]

it’s well written but none of the stories were particularly memorable or stood out to me :/

[Noah Isherwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

goodness gracious, these delicate tales. leaves you breathless.

[liv · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Mothers die, I thought. Everyone’s mother dies at some point.”

“Poor Lydia. My best friend. I could punch her heart out. I could bite off her limbs and masticate them and swallow them. I could annihilate her. I would do it. If that would return my brother to this earth - give me an airplane, and watch me ride it through her.”

“She said that men experience the same feelings - woe, misery, terror - but are not allowed to share them, whereas women gain strength from sharing ourselves; it’s what allows us to keep living despite all that we suffer - knowing that we’re living it together.”

“I mean to say she was dead. I mean to say I had never seen a person sit so still.”

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another lovely and varied story collection - I feel like I've been reading so many good ones lately!

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vara has a special and unique voice. Her ability to tell stories both deep and identifiable, is obviously a gift she was born with.

[Nidhi Shrivastava · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last week, prolific and prize winning author Vauhini Vara (the author of Immortal King Rao) released her collection of stories, This Is Salvaged!

Through this story collection, the author explores the themes of grief, intimacy, pain, relationships between self and others, and what it means being a sibling, friend, neighbor, or lover. We meet a young girl who reads the encyclopedia to her elderly neighbor who is suffering from dementia, one sister consumes the ashes of other, and an experimental artist takes on the ambitious task to recreate Noah’s Ark.

Vara’s honest and raw writing style dealing with the themes of grief and trauma makes this collection relatable and transports the readers into the minds of the narrator. The first one titled, “The Irates” initially seemed to be about two teenage women seeking jobs as phone sex operators. Swati, the narrator, is grieving her brother who she loses unexpectedly to cancer. While having a sarcastic tone throughout and jealous/envious of her friend who is empathetic to loss, she struggles to make emotional connections to the people on the phone. Things take the turn for the worst when 9/11 strikes, and she is making a routine call to a family who have a chance to win a trip to Hawaii. However, she becomes tongue-tied and is unable to express grief with the woman on the other line.

“I, Buffalo,” too, depicts a woman living in the Bay Area who is neglectful of her home and life after falling from grace after a scandal. As an aunt, she craves her relationship with her niece but also sees herself as awkward, insecure, and perhaps someone struggling mentally.

Vara’s stories are rich with flawed characters
who are coping to day to day lives. They aren’t perfect but are relatable because of their shortcomings. In both the stories, I couldn’t help but relate to both characters - the feeling of inadequacies, sometimes struggling with grief and being speechless, and feeling of guilt from being unable to express my feelings made the stories memorable.

Thank you the author and @w.w.Norton for the gifted copy!

#VauhiniVara #ThisIsSalvaged #BIPOC #BIPOCauthor #WWNorton #shnidhi

[Ellen Wildman So · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m starting to really enjoy short stories! This book was on the “Best Books of 2023” list at my library, and I can see why. It contains beautiful pictures of everyday people. I will say it’s not particularly fast-moving, but I still very much enjoyed it! ❤️

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love these stories..

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little uneven, but some of the stories really make up for the lackluster bits. The Irates kills it right out the gate, so it's hard to follow.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a solid collection of short stories. The Irates and the last three stories were particular standouts for me.

[Gabbie Burseth · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautiful short stories about grief and what it means to be a woman. favorites were i, buffalo and puppet master made the puppets

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good short story collection - quirky as the genre demands!

[Angela Hui]

the irates!!!!! :O sooo good. should have been the title story imo. the original mcsweeney's version of "puppet master" is incredible... def superior to the version in my arc. can they change it back??

[Rebekah Crain · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This Is Salvaged is a collection of short stories all having a central theme of salvaging, making do, and repurposing less than desirable aspects of one's life - relationships, ideas, furniture, etc. Simply put, they're about existing and trying to find beauty and contentment within such an existence even when it would be easier to quit.

The writing is good and stories all have a very raw and honest feel to them. It just wasn't my most favorite thing that I've read. Of all the stories my top two would be "Unknown Unknowns" and "The Hormone Hypothesis". The latter of which had a killer first page that completely sucked this reader in. 😁

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story collection was fantastic. Filled with people of all ages and life situations, but filled with complex situations spanning grief, loss, joy and recovery. Each story is complete and filled with memorable characters. This small collection packs a punch.

I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.

Staff Pick: October 2023

[Bill Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a collection, the stories were hit or miss…more misses than hits, unfortunately. Most deal with absence and loss, and a few provide a memorable emotional wallop. But too many fall flat, with no discernible narrative arc or resolution. I still have her well-regarded debut novel on my reading list…I’m hopeful she’s superior in a longer form.

[Alex Shaps · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had some interesting ideas but didn’t blow me away. I felt no desire to finish reading the book.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed several of these stories. I was at her book talk in San Francisco back in October (2023) and heard her speak about the "bodily fluids and functions and tissues" that were written into some of the stories. How she focuses on these things that people often want to ignore or disregard because they're gross or embarrassing. I enjoyed hearing her speak about her writing process and research.

Some of the stories towards the end of the book felt disjointed in some ways, like what was introduced at the beginning didn't have anything to do with what was told at the end. Or maybe it did and I just couldn't see it that way. Like there was something profound to be gotten out of the stories' endings, but I was mostly like, "OK, I guess." Again, maybe I just couldn't make the connections.

“I was in sort of a fix with respect to my man.
We had been together for three years. But recently he had proposed to me, and after this, I had found myself hating him. I hated him for wanting to commit himself to me forever. Was he some kind of idiot?
I had accepted, of course.
But now this.” pg. 36

“Fernanda doesn’t work; she worked a lot when she was younger, but now she’s a stay-at-home mom. ‘Americans are obsessed with being productive and earning, they believe you’re not “contributing” if you’re not working, but I just want to exist. I don’t mind existing.’” pg. 104

“I told her that I understood loss, that my sister died when we were young. I said this for several reasons. First, she had been so candid, and I felt I should be as well. Second, as I mentioned, I had been reminded of my mom when she paused before telling me about her other daughter. And third, having grown up with a sister who was my guide in this life, and then having lost her, made me feel acutely the loneliness of being an only child. My entire life since, I’d been traversing the world searching for sister-shaped people to fill the space she had left. Here I was, before this relative stranger, doing it again. I didn’t say all this out loud, I only mentioned my sister’s death, but I could quickly tell, from her expression, that she didn’t feel that it was at all comparable to her loss. She was right. I added that I didn’t mean to suggest it was similar, that it was a completely different experience.” pg. 111-112

“You can say that we’re all dying
You can look at it that way
But I don’t
Because I’m not
I’m living every day
I’m living every moment
Each one in my own way
I’m living and I’m loving
And all I have to say
Is thank you God
Thank you so much
Thank you for today” pg. 135

Book: borrowed from NB Branch.

[Brown Girl Bookshelf]

In this dynamic collection of short fiction, “This Is Salvaged”, Pulitzer finalist Vauhini Vara skillfully explores the pitfalls and wounds of girlhood. These stories encompass characters of a variety of ages, life experiences, and ethnicities, but center Vara's Indian-American identity and her talent for portraying the lost and bewildered.

In "The Irates", two teens lose themselves in a phone sex operation, using the guise of adulthood to mask inner grief. In "The Eighteen Girls", Vara takes on a swathe of unnamed girl characters to sketch out their lives in broad strokes narrative distance method of writing reminiscent of Daphne Palasi Andreades's “Brown Girls.” In "The Hormone Hypothesis", Vara departs girlhood for the perspective of a middle-aged woman, still just as seeking in her new friendship with an intriguing Colombian woman.

However, the standout story in Vara's collection is undoubtedly the title story, and this is the one most removed from South Asian identity and girlhood. Marlon, a struggling artist dealing with the dissolution of a long term relationship, pours himself into the grandiose task of recreating Noah's Ark from recycled materials. Despite his self-imposed artistic exile, Marlon forges relationships with the townsfolk. He experiences an allegorical rebirth, similar to the forced destruction and cleansing of the arc during the original biblical flood. The tragedy of this story is more palpable than some of the others, and it is clear why this story serves as a fulcrum in Vara's collection.

In all these tales, Vara incorporates heritage in casual, unassuming ways: subtle mentions of dosa and pesaruttu, wailing funeral customs, familiar South Asian names. This representation is more than welcome, as identity takes a step back to subtle characterization without being lost entirely. While perhaps not eclipsing “The Immortal King Rao,” Vara's short story collection displays her craft talents and her willingness to never waste a word. These stories are quiet yet incisive, and keep you turning pages till the end.

[Gloria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure, I was already a fan of Vauhini Vara after reading the 2023 Pulitzer finalist epic "The Immortal King Rao." So, I opened the book "This Is Salvaged" completely prepared to like it. I was not disappointed. This unique collection of ten stories brought to mind an image of excellent bits of amuse-bouche to savor, but absent the need to move on to a main course!

Many of the stories involve children of various ages, and incorporate the search all humans share to find the particular individual meaning of our own life, despite never ending pressures and obstacles and constraints.. Vara crafts her words with great skill, eliciting contemplation and emotion and empathy from her readers. Her characters struggle with grief, addiction, and trying to negotiate a purpose while realizing "life is incomprehensible." The reader discovers all the narratives are linked by the characters trying to salvage the best from their existences.

My five star rating is based on the condition that you, the reader, will not consume all the stories in one sitting as I did. I was left feeling as if I had just binged an entire season of some show on a streaming network; slightly mentally overwhelmed and overstimulated with the nagging suspicion that I might have enjoyed them more if I had devoured them a bit more sparingly over a longer expanse of time. Still, I am totally satisfied with this work, and will happily recommend it to all!!

[Laurieanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

This collection of ten short stories features a diverse group of characters. They represent a variety of cultural backgrounds and are in different stages of life. Most seem to be seeking connection, belonging, and meaning, not always in the best way. The author’s premises and approaches are often abstract and inventive, at the same time I mostly didn’t connect with the writing.

There were moments that resonated, but the two stories I liked the most were also among the most conventional: “You Are Not Alone” about an eight year old girl who goes to Florida to live with her father and stepmother–”the stranger”--while her mother is hospitalized due to mental illness and “What Next” about a single immigrant mother and her daughter seeking connection with her unknown father.

There were a few stories/characters that were unlikeable. And a couple of stories that just didn’t work for me. One story felt unformed and no more than an idea–”Unknown Unknowns” And the other that felt disjointed with one half more essay/memoir-like which changed to a more conventional story mid-way–”The Hormone Hypothesis”.

52 Book Club 2025 Reading Challenge #36: Final sentence is less than six words long.
Ultimate Book Riot Reading Challenge #3: A collection of short stories.

[Miriam Kumaradoss-Hohauser · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 but only because this, like so many collections of short stories, fell repeatedly into what I think of as the literary pull-out—the unsatisfying cousin of the open-ended conclusion, where a narrative stops or kinda womp womps before completing its arc. I like weird structures, I promise! I love a wide-open ending, even when it's confusing! But goddammit, Vauhini Vara is just such a brilliant writer that I feel like she could write even the most structurally traditional story and still have it be arresting and singular. Consequently, whenever a story wound up before what felt like its time it left me feeling pretty womp womp despite the gorgeousness, wit, and poignancy of pretty much every sentence. Then again, this is probably just a sign that I need to quit whining about literary fiction tropes/tendencies, get up off my butt, and go read The Immortal King Rao already. All this is to say: sometimes this book can be a little frustrating, but that's only because overall it is SO FKN GOOD that even tiny distractions from said so fkn goodness stand out more than they would in an average or subpar book.