CUSTOM - COMUNICACION ACTUAL: REDES SOCIALES Y LO 2.0 Y 3.0.

by GONZALV

‘A novel like none other’ AMITAV GHOSH

‘A masterpiece’ AVNI DOSHI

‘Wise, funny, touching’ ROBERT MACFARLANE
In this bold and brilliant work from the award-winning author of The Nine-Chambered Heart, journeys across continents and centuries intertwine in a multi-layered saga that unfolds through the lives of four unique characters.

For Shai, lost and drifting, a visit to her hometown in India’s Northeast offers the possibility of new ways of living.

For Evelyn, a Cambridge student, scientific inspiration guides her to the forests of the lower Himalayas and a world she has only read about.

For Johann, a German writer, travelling through Italy inspires him to develop ground-breaking ideas that will cement his place in history.

And for a young Swede, an unwavering curiosity for earth’s natural wonders takes him on an expedition that will forever alter the way we understand the world around us.

A marvellous exploration of our ways of seeing, Everything the Light Touches brings together people and places that seem, at first, far removed from each other in time and place. Yet as we discover, all is resonance, all is connection.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, India, Literary Fiction, Nature, Poetry, Indian Literature

1000 pages, CD-ROM

Published December 15, 2014

Reviews

[Kathryn Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book falls squarely into the category of “not for me.” It is so very much not for me that I’m not sure if I can even give it an honest rating. I wanted to read it based on the comparison to Cloud Cuckoo Land, which I very much enjoyed, but this feels more pretentious somehow than that book and really killed my enjoyment. I also felt no attachment to any of the characters and just overall had a miserable time reading this. There is an audience for it, I’m sure, it’s just not me.

[tara]

I loved this so much more than I anticipated: lyrical, moving, and left me looking at the world differently, the way only the best books can do.

Thank you to HarperVia and Edelweiss for the ARC!

[Shirleynature · Rating 5 out of 5]

Four evocative and transcendent stories intertwine through different historical moments and locations in Everything the Light Touches. Each likable-flawed character enjoys a resonant sense of place with nature reverence while being compelled by their own quests. This is an enchanting invocation of fables from the Khasi culture --indigenous people in northeast India and nearby Bangladesh. Janice Pariat’s family includes Portuguese and Khasi heritage. The author credits Robin Wall Kimmerer (Citizen Potawatomi Nation) among her influences. Recommended for Khasi storytelling and eco-fiction with clear anti-colonial themes and immersive sensory experiences!

Read my blog post: Lyrical and Transcendent Storytelling
https://lplks.org/blogs/post/lyrical-...

I discovered Dr. Pariat is currently reading Funeral Nights by Kynpham Singh Nongkynrih, another Khasi writer.

Oct 26-Dec 15, 2022 listened to digital audio -- love this even more!
A timeless & lyrically wise celebration of characters deeply connected to plants, all of the living world, as well as human relationships. Among her influences East Indian author Janice Pariat credits the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

This book celebrates people and their relationships with plants; a book to thoughtfully savor, rather than rush through. Author Janice Pariat shares wisdom especially for deeper connection with the natural world; she lives in New Delhi.

Influences noted in goodreads’ author profile: Philip Pullman, Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Sylvia Plath, Ernest Hemingway, and Philip Larkin

Notes saved while reading:
Oct 26-Dec 15, 2022 listened to digital audio -- love this even more!
October 25, 2022 – Finished Reading (print book)
October 24, 2022 – page 481
93.95%
October 23, 2022 – page 466
91.02% "A book to savor rather than rush through. Janice Pariat shares prescient wisdom, especially to reconnect and care with our natural world; I look forward to celebrating this book with many readers!"
October 21, 2022 – page 440
85.94%
October 17, 2022 – page 426
83.2%
October 11, 2022 – page 398
77.73% "A quote from page 392 of the advance pre-published copy: "'... telling a story is like leading someone through a forest... It is richer the more time you spend in there, the more you walk around and stop to look at the trees and the flowers and the leaves. He says I walk too straight through my story.' She grins. 'Too quick. That I am too much in a hurry."'"
October 10, 2022 – page 377
73.63%
October 9, 2022 – page 362
70.7%
October 8, 2022 – page 350
68.36%
October 5, 2022 – page 339
66.21%
October 4, 2022 – page 322
62.89%
October 3, 2022 – page 311
60.74%
October 1, 2022 – page 292
57.03%
September 29, 2022 – page 278
54.3%
September 26, 2022 – page 261
50.98% "A spoiler:
On page 242 of the uncorrected proof copy, Linnaeus reveals his violent manipulative treatment toward the Laplander's practice of drumming and honoring "idiols".
Here's a resource I'll peruse later:
https://www.linnean.org/learning/who-..."
September 22, 2022 – page 205
40.04% "Goethe asks "What can the living world teach ?""
September 21, 2022 – page 188
36.72% "Some sections are slower reading."
September 18, 2022 – page 166
32.42% "Compelling & suspenseful with intriguing book title references included intermittently."
September 15, 2022 – page 142
27.73%
September 14, 2022 – page 136
26.56%
September 12, 2022 – page 116
22.66%
September 10, 2022 – Shelved as: social-justice
September 10, 2022 – Shelved as: arc
September 10, 2022 – Shelved as: science
September 10, 2022 – page 90
17.58% "I am fully engaged with the characters at this point; introductions for each protagonist begins a bit slowly.

This is highlighted early in Janice Pariat's new book:
Florianne Koechlin, Tomatoes talk, birch trees learn – do plants have dignity?, 
TEDxZurich video. (January 2016) 
https://youtu.be/i8YnvMpcrVI "
September 4, 2022 – page 79
15.43% "So far this is engaging with relatable & flawed characters, and a strong sense of place in contemporary India. I appreciate the nudges to highlight our need to reconnect with the Earth."
September 4, 2022 – Started Reading (print ARC)

[Ashima Jain · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Beneath our feet exists another world, I learn, a network of infinite biological pathways, through which trees share resources, information, nutrients. Some regard it as a competitive system, regulated through self-interest, sanction, and reward. Others believe trees care for one another, and act as guardians, sharing resources, with the healthy supporting the weak. A free market versus a socialist’s dream.“

Everything the Light Touches follows four people who, separated by time and place, share a love for travel and ecology. Their connection transcends time and yet their common purpose adds weight to the knowledge that people, like plants, have to find their roots.

The book has a lyrical prose with a philosophical bent that is explained using the language of botany. The characters' individual journeys evoke a sense of purpose and belonging that is connected like a network of roots under the ground – invisible on the surface but a source of strength and nourishment.

As much as I loved the writing, I confess I didn’t quite understand the purpose of the characters’ stories. For me, it made more sense as short stories where the reader revisits each character. Or maybe that’s how it was meant to be. And yet, there were moments when I was utterly captivated by the poetic nuances. It was like a picture being drawn before my eyes – word by word.

One of those rare books that you enjoy not for the story but simply for the experience of reading.

For complete review, visit https://aquamarineflavours.wordpress....
Find me on other platforms via https://linktr.ee/AshieJayn

[n · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved this! gentle & quietly revelatory.

[Siddhant Agarwal · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are very few stories that can make you think beyond the book and see a world from a different lens, and this one does just that. The 4 stories are set across time and places and present a picture that is unique yet intimately connected through the thread of the idea of the world we live in. As I started reading the book and encountered Shai’s story, my mind started forming a notion of what the book could be, and then as I moved on to Evelyn’s story, it was a completely different frame, and that was something I really loved about the book, the fact that it tells you a story which is the characters’ own and uninhibited story of their being and their reason for following the light. Focusing on the aspect of nature and the quest of finding an enigma, each of the characters ultimately lead a journey that puts them on a journey where they rediscover themselves.
Janice’s storytelling is powerful and immersive, and even for a person who is not a botanist, the book would resonate in multiple places. There are snippets from the story that teach and some of them are so wonderful that will compel you to mark them, for some of them might just become a part of your life. The story is fluid and draws itself from the local stories to the writings of Linnaeus and Goethe and weaves something that stuns you. Another aspect of the book is that like a plant which has various visual differences, this story has incorporated in itself poetry, verse, folk tales, travelogues and other literary components which make it seem so alive. From Evie’s story, I loved the way Janice charts her journey and her quest to find something mythical, and the way the story ends with that question that puts her on a crossroad was something I fell in love with. Shai’s journey was equally wonderful and the manner in which we saw her story unfolds is interesting, and the last time we see her, it is quite hard to let go of her, and really had a hard time doing that. Goethe’s journey for me was full of emotions and the second time he comes back to Rome was the highlight for me. Carl’s part in the story is a free verse describing the journey of a botanist that is the middle part of the book, and is something that is truly central to the other three stories.
The message that Janice puts forth in this book is important, specially in the times we live in. The idea of taking only what we need is something we really need to imbibe in ourselves and our lives. Another concept I loved was that of leaving something behind when you take something from the nature. The idea of conservation and the concept of ownership explored in the story really grips you. The story with the Rooster was something I have never heard and that is one that made me smile, especially the way it unfolded. Another one that stood out for me was that of when they talk about contracts and how keeping one’s word is considered sacred.

The characters Janice brings to life in this book have a purpose and despite there being many, each of the character leaves their mark on your mind. So be it Shai in the contemporary times, or Evie in the Edwardian era, or Goethe and Carl before them, each of them charts their own path, and curiously the shift in the time is understood as the story is told and the years not expressly indicated.

I would really recommend the book to everyone and while it might seem like a big book, the story moves like a river, and once you are in it, you go where the flow takes you. This is the first book that inspired me and compelled me to use tabs to highlight my favorite sections, and that is I would recommend-keep something to highlight the pages, for they are magnetic and deserve to be highlighted and noted and reread.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Nearly 3.5) An enthusiastic advance puff from travel writer Jini Reddy and an appealing premise drew me to read this even though it is nearly 500 pages. I'd also read a much shorter book of Pariat's before (The Nine-Chambered Heart) and enjoyed it. This is a big, ambitious novel in the vein of The Overstory with environmentalism at its heart. Alas, it did not live up to my expectations. The problem with nestled narratives set in disparate times and/or places, though, is that, if the sections don't all interlock in a satisfying manner, you have to wonder what the point of any of them was. (I DNFed Anna Hope's The White Rock for that very reason.)

So here we have four strands that push further into the past and then back to the present day in an ABCDCBA pattern. We start with Shai, a cosmopolitan Indian thirtysomething who returns to rural Assam to look after her ill nanny. This area is threatened by uranium mining and forest removal. Then we move to Evelyn, a passionate botanist who feigns interest in marriage to become part of the Fishing Fleet girls who traveled to India to meet Englishmen working for the Raj. She is a devotee of the German writer Goethe's scientific philosophy and becomes set on finding his Ur-plant. The third section is, appropriately, about Goethe and closely follows his own travel narrative of time spent in Italy. The fulcrum, delivered in an inventive second person and nature-themed poems, is about Carl Linnaeus and his trip to Lapland, so crucial to our modern understanding of nature and species.

Each of these story lines is accomplished, with solid writing and a strong sense of place. If you combined the three pairs of long chapters, each character's story would form a reasonably interesting novella set at a different point in history. However, I'm not sure why anyone interested in Goethe or Linnaeus would pick this up when they could read a full-length work by or about either figure instead. Also, the references to the mystical Ur-plant are a thin would-be connection, and with the emphasis on Indigenous knowledge of plants, Pariat seems a bit too indebted to Robin Wall Kimmerer (she does disclose that inspiration in the final paragraph of her author's note).

Favourite lines:

(Shai) "I've found something I hadn't anywhere before--purpose. Which sounds grand and exalted, I know, but truly, I've realized, it is merely to sleep well at night and to wake up knowing you are needed--by someone, a plant, a pet, a person, the world, yourself."

(in Carl's section) "The starting point must be to marvel at all things, even the most commonplace."

[Sarah Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A complex novel which takes the stories of a handful of people separated by time and place and watches as they move through the world .The stories are linked thematically by the people’s love of two things ,travel and botany
I don’t usually like short stories but this book is more than a collection of individual stories ,the author somehow manages to draw out the similarities and differences in a particularly successful apparently effortless way .Thos is not easy to do ,I found myself pondering coincidences and links to other stories whilst I read .
The author has a beautiful prose style which manages to be accessible and easy to read whilst at the same time being poetic .
The common settings of Italy and India are woven through the story and the sense of place is very strong
At the end of the book I was left feeling I had been on a journey both literal and emotional with the characters ,all of whom I found myself easily identifying with .Not a lot happens there is somehow not an end to any of the stories but I’m stead of feeling cheated I felt this was the whole point of the book
I read an early copy of the book on NetGalley Uk the book is published 13th October 2022 by Harper Collins Uk

[frog · Rating 1 out of 5]

had such great potential to be a beautiful and interconnected story, but really did not live up to that potential. the stories were very loosely connected, and the connections didn't seem to have much of a point. shai's story was the only one with any actual depth, and the only part that was tolerable to read. both goethe and eve's sections were dreadfully boring, far too wordy, and long. this would be a great book for someone who loves to waste time and struggle to finish a book for three months.

[Girish · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Isn't that why we embark on journeys? Not only to see new things but to see things in new ways."

“The starting point must be to marvel at all things, even the most commonplace"

Kublei Ms.Janice Patriat for this book for the soul. This ambitious book had all my heart and kept me in a constant state of wonder. Set across a sprawling canvas spanning different centuries and different continents - four journeys seem to converge towards the same quest. Structured like nested dolls, the journeys form a nested narrative with no overlaps.

While reminiscent of Richard Power's Overstory, the spirit of the story however is on the inter-connectedness of lives and the nature around us, specifically plants and trees. By taking Goethe's journey - Ms.Pariat plays on the boundaries of fact and fiction - assuming an observer's role to learn. The shortest section on Carl Linnaeus follows a verse and poetry format which is engrossing.

For me the journeys of Evelyn and Shai bore the most amount of impact given the commitment to the journey. In a sense it makes them superheroes. Also, the parts of the book that happen in Meghalaya, a Sanskrit name for a state that doesn't speak the language, had me tripping on nostalgic journeys. The role of community as custodians of nature is a powerful idea.

Personally, it was a book of many regrets for me. The years I spent in Shillong, I have covered some of the places in the book and aware of many words whose meanings I didn't know then. When you have the awareness of what it means, the impact is massive. For example, the last year I was in Shillong - I skipped the sacred forest since it was too far. Sohra's three stones were photography points.

The book explains a lot about the Khasi community beliefs, that for me was almost a transaction at that time. The mythology stories had me wanting for more. I can't help feel - I wish I had known or had more dialogues to find out for myself. This second hand sense of amazement still had me getting goosebumps at times.

The last regret was I skipped the line to meet Ms.Pariat at Bangalore Lit Fest since I didn't know this book would have such an impact on me.

This is a book for the soul.

[Hira · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a narrative, this book and it’s story did not quite do it for me, HOWEVER, I absolutely loved some of the metaphors in this book, as they pertain to life. I love the idea that nature is analogous to humankind in that we are intertwined with each other, and have our own heirarchy and ecosystem much like the plants do. I would recommend reading it, just for some of those lush metaphors!

[Rachna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read Janice Pariat before and probably this is why I ended up comparing this book with her previous, the prose and the writing was so lyrical, almost poetic in The Nine Chambered Heart but for me, it fell so short in Everything The Light Touches. While the writing here is more simplistic like how it's supposed to be with the story accompanying it, I could not really connect with the characters either and had to rush quickly through the second half. While I loved what the idea of this book is, which is botanical enquiry, the way of seeing, Goethe and all things green, but I somehow kept feeling like it was repetitive, and in some ways also in a way, not fair on actual scientists as it keeps questioning their methods, but as we know, there is never a right way of doing things and even if the scientific process is classifying, labelling that doesn't necessarily mean that it is a black and white thinking, that they may not "feel or see" things in unity.

[Mia Mi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tough read, because nothing really Happens and though the Single stories are somewhat connected through the narrative it’s not really satisfying. Cannot recommend and tbh wouldn’t have finished it if it wasn’t for a university class.

[Ameya Bokil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Might write a longer review later. This one feels magical and life altering. Will always be thinking about it.

[Eileen Sainsbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

I borrowed this book online with Libby, the time is too short to read such a complicated book. I will have to buy it and reread it. It it fascinating and very thought provoking.

[Lora · Rating 3 out of 5]

read some and gave up

[bookswithchaipai]

EVERYTHING THE LIGHT TOUCHES - Janice
Genre - Eco-fiction, Historical Fiction
5/5

“My days are full of you In places where I didn’t know were empty”.

As I listened to the sweet sound of Janice Pariat reading excerpts from her latest book, I was transported to beautiful fruit-laden forests and the quiet in the cacophony of birds, and I could see how she has managed to piece together a book of such magnificent proportions. Just like the book, she exudes a sense of calm, a feeling of having touched something pure and of the earth.

Shai, Evelyn, Goethe and Lineaus are the main protagonists of this book, but they are separated by centuries and continents.

We follow Shai as she leaves behind the humdrum of life in Delhi, and goes exploring her roots in Shillong on a magical journey.

Evelyn, travels from Britain on a ship to India, hoping to find a secret in the sacred Himalayan foothills, only to be given an impossible proposition.

Goethe’s narrative puts us in Italy, as he traverses the beautiful landscape of Rome and Sicily in the 1780’s, as he transforms from a famous playwright to a lover of plants.

Lineaus’ narrative has a different quality - in the form of poetry, which takes us through the Laplands and gives us a snapshot of his brilliant mind.

The story spans centuries, but the common thread holding them together, is a bond so strong, that it existed even before the first plant spread its first leaves. It is rooted in the beauty of nature, the observation of life in the soil, and the bounty that the forests have to offer us. And it holds the secret of all creation, using beautiful words of wisdom, opening up unimaginable possibilities about the secrets of the forests.

[Evan Timberlake · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first book I actually won through a Goodreads giveaway. Sent by the publisher prior to release, so it came as a blank white bound book with a picture of the actual book on the front of it, for some reason. I think it’s been widely released now. It was actually pretty good, although I’m not sure I always grasped the metaphors involved. A lot of the time it was about plants; but I think also about people, and our interwoven lives. In the end, aren’t we all just plants though? Probably not. I do like the conceit of different characters throughout time traveling the same paths unknowingly, gives the novel a weightier feel. There were some passages throughout that I did find to be profound and made a note of. Not my favorite book, but better than I expected I think. I would recommend it.

[Radhika Pathak · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has made me wonder what “just being” might feel like. There were moments when it helped me accept my desire to be with nature and how that is actually what would make me feel alive. I felt most attached to Shai and I related with her on feeling lost and finding yourself in the smallest of things!

This was my first read by Janice Pariat, I’m glad to have ventured and found a masterpiece!

[° . d a m i n i . •. · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know you've read a good book when by the time you finish it, you are a changed person. This is going down as one of the most important reads of my life. ❤

[Will Florentino · Rating 4 out of 5]

who needs a man when you can have the tree which contains all trees

[Jess Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say about this book? Lyrical, emotive, breathtaking. The structure of the interconnected stories added such nuance and felt like puzzle pieces fitting together.

My friend recommended this book to me, stating that it inspired her thesis. There is no higher honour!

[Devathi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been meaning to read this book ever since I met Janice Pariat at a conference and proceeded to have a massive crush on her.

[David - marigold_bookshelf · Rating 3 out of 5]

So claims one of the characters of Janice Pariat’s beautifully written Everything The Light Touches. An ambitious novel that narrates times in the lives of four very different people, who have in common their quest for exploring, for freedom, for examining the essence of nature itself.

We follow Shai who returns to her remote homeland near Schillong, in Megalaya. Evelyn is a young woman who travels to India at the turn of the 20th century, in search of a legendary plant. Then we have the German writer, playwright, and naturalist Johann von Goethe roaming through Italy towards the end of the 18th Century. The fourth character is the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, with notes from his excursion to Lapland in 1732.

The author has a wonderful lightness of touch which can be enjoyable by and for itself. But I would have preferred the novel to have a stronger common storyline, with more tangible links between the characters. I am sure many, probably most, readers will disagree with me. And perhaps I read the book at the wrong time, towards the end of the year, at a busy moment and with just a little impatience. But I felt that just as I was becoming engrossed in the life of a particular character, they were left behind with only a fleeting mention later on in the book. Evelyn in particular was an evocative personality, and I was left wanting to follow her beyond the pages of the novel…

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this could be the book for me….travel to India, search for the “mother of all plants”, Linnaeus classification system, a little love, a little adventure. While the writing was better than fine, the story never came together for me and I simply pushed through to finish. Moral of the story: read something simpler over Christmas.

[Sandeep · Rating 3 out of 5]

In all honesty, I love her short stories more than her novels. Every novel of hers has been underwhelming compared to her phenomenal short stories.

[Anna Tran · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF and maayyyy pick it back up another time? I enjoyed the first half and the prose but it's honestly such a slow pace that I don't feel the urge to finish it anytime in the next month

[Gracie Griffith · Rating 3 out of 5]

wholly unique but not exactly riveting

[anusha_reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

EVERYTHING THE LIGHT TOUCHES, JANICE PARIAT, LONGLISTED FOR JCB PRIZE FOR LITERATURE 2023

Everything the Light Touches is a fabulous piece of art that I thoroughly enjoyed. Not only does it traverse through history, but it also offers a depth of information and richness in writing. The novel is rife with lush greenery and evokes the smell of wet tree trunks, damp moss, and petrichor, making it feel like a walk through the wilderness. I am so glad to have read it after my friend.

The author experiments with different forms of narratives, adding to the overall appeal. Like Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, the novel contains four stories, each pausing and then being narrated in reverse order. The stories feature Shai in the present world, Evelyn in the 20th century, Goethe, the polymath in the late 18th to 19th century, and Carl Linnaeus in the 18th century All characters are on a quest, travelling and trying to unravel the mysteries of nature. They are all nature lovers.

The book makes us reflect on the apathetic attitude of people towards nature, flora, and fauna. I read somewhere that "Globally, we deforest around ten million hectares of forest every year."

“ALL IS LEAF- GOETHE, THE METAMORPHOSIS OF PLANTS”

The research into the perspectives of Gothe and Linnaeus about the leaf and its relation to a plant was fascinating. While Goethe had a philosophical outlook, Linnaeus, as the father of taxonomy, had a more academic perspective, initiating the modern botanical nomenclature. The arguments and discourses between contrasting ideas, examples, and anecdotes were extremely enjoyable.

QOTD: WOULD YOU LIKE TO LIVE IN THE WILDERNESS, AWAY FROM THE HUSTLE AND BUSTLE? WHERE IS/(WILL BE) YOUR DREAM HOUSE ?

Evelyn is a character that I admired for being a strong and determined lady of the 20th century. While women of that era were expected to marry, Evelyn pursued her botanical acumen instead.

“TO HOLD KNOWLEDGE IS TO HOLD RESPONSIBILITY, AND TO KNOW TRULY IS TO KNOW DEEPLY, TO GIVE OF YOURSELF SO THAT THE KNOWING MEANS SOMETHING MORE THAN MERE WORDS. TRUE KNOWING CHANGES YOU; WE BELIEVE YOU CANNOT GO BACK TO HOW YOU WERE IN THE WORLD BEFORE.”

Is it about the journey called life? Is it everybody’s quest? Are we still trying to find what we are looking/seeking in life?

It's an easy read, but it's tough to analyse or interpret a book that requires a reread.

A book that is bound to make an indelible impression.

“WELL, I DO WHAT I DO BECAUSE I AM TRYING TO FIND, NOT THE RIGHT ANSWERS, BUT THE RIGHT QUESTIONS. IT IS MUCH HARDER, I THINK BECAUSE WE MUST LOOK BEYOND OUR SO-CALLED AREA OF SPECIALIZATION, AND TRY TO DRAW FROM THE HISTORY OF SIMPLY EVERYTHING THAT MIGHT BE INVOLVED IN FRAMING THE QUESTION. TO ASK THE RIGHT QUESTION IS TO LOOK BEYOND THE BORDERS OF BOTANY AND PHILOSOPHY AND ART AND MYSTICISM SUDDENLY, THEY ALL MATTER, BECAUSE THEY ALWAYS HAVE.”

FACT: Wettest place in the world: MAWSYNRAM, MEGHALAYA has avg. annual rainfall of 11871 mm.

2nd in line: CHERRAPUNJI, MEGHALAYA has avg. annual rainfall of 11777 mm.

“BECAUSE FOR MONTHS ON END HERE WE GET SLAP BAM BRIEW,” THE BOY EXPLAINED. “RAIN SO STRONG AND LONG-LASTING IT DOES NOT STOP UNTIL IT HAS TAKEN LIVES.”

[S Ashok · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is a collection of accounts of different lives over different times and locations. They all search for meaning beyond the lives seen by others. They all are in a perpetual metamorphosis, part of the journey they are becoming someone else. It is this moment of transition we witness in all of their lives. We see Shai who returns to Shillong from Delhi after having lived and exhausted herself trying to create herself a career. She has been living a life in a hurry, forever returning to Delhi but this time its different. She embarks on a journey to visit someone who had been dear to her in the past. Through this journey she is introduced to a world which she had rarely seen outside of the bubble she had lived in until now. The village that she visits exists in timelessness, there is rarely any thing urgent to be pursued. Living in this idyllic world she seems to have a feeling of finally arriving. In the rhythms of the everyday activities, of maintaining a kitchen garden, taking a walk in the scenic mountains, caring for the simple people around her, she seems to find fulfillment. Those who have been close to her like her parents seem now to be distant, they are unable to understand the reason for her living in a remote village.
In a similar way Evelyn who is living in a different century is undergoing herself a metamorphosis. She has been an outlier always, pursuing botany in a male dominant scientific world in 18th century Britain. She embarks on a journey to India in search of a tree which seems to contain all the trees in itself. She is fascinated by British explorers, and imagines herself traveling these remote worlds they visit. Her disillusionment with the conventional Botanical need to separate and study the plants analytically, she feels that this has removed the wonder that she used to feel for plants. The wonder that she shared with her grandmother as they journeyed through forests when she was young. Its in Goethe that she finds her inspiration, he was interested in the study of the whole over the parts. His metamorphosis was a poets challenge to the scientific view of that century.
We see Goethe himself as a character in this novel, we see his own metamorphosis, his journey to Rome and he refinding himself there. Especially when he visits the streets of Rome with a woman he had fallen in love with, she is a commoner, not even aware of his achievements, for her the Pantheon is the place near which she buys curd. It is through her that he starts seeing everything arround him differently. He also arrives at his inspiration for the metamorphosis of plants that he wrote later.
The novel ends with Shai deciding to stay in this remote village, she understands how everything in this world is interconnected and this interconnection is what she is blessed with living in the village. Evelyn on the other hand decides to become a nomad protecting the special plant and becomes part of a legend about the nomads. The central idea of the novel is finding the magic in our lives by looking at life through the mids eye and how everyone is moving towards it. The novel is a remarkable journey.