The Far Field

by Madhuri Vijay Narrated by Sneha Mathan

Overview

In the wake of her mother's death, Shalini, a privileged and restless young woman from Bangalore, sets out for a remote Himalayan village in the troubled northern region of 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 confront him. But upon her arrival, Shalini is brought face to face with Kashmir's politics, as well as the tangled history of the local family that takes her in. And when 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 hold dangerous repercussions for the very people she has come to love.

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Jan Stuart

…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. The show-stealer is Shalini's mercurial mother, an "outrageous queen" of capricious gestures. Vijay smartly resists psychoanalyzing her, implying that the china-shop bulls in our families can be survived but never entirely explained away.

Publishers Weekly

★ 10/29/2018
Vijay’s remarkable debut novel is an engrossing narrative of individual angst played out against political turmoil in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state in the late 2000s. Unmoored by her mother’s death, 24-year-old Shalini apathetically floats from job to job while receiving financial support from her affluent father. In an effort to find closure, Shalini leaves her native Bangalore to search for Bashir Ahmed, her mother’s only friend, who she hasn’t seen in years. Upon arriving in tumultuous Jammu, Shalini is taken in by a Muslim family in Kishtwar and struggles to understand the fractured nature of her surroundings: the role of the omnipresent Indian Army, the disappearances of local Muslims, and the frequent violence against and perpetrated by both Muslims and Hindus. Her search eventually leads to a Himalayan village, whose generous inhabitants temporarily give her a sense of purpose amidst staggering natural beauty. However, Shalini’s ignorance and inability to be honest with herself and others results in dangerous consequences for everyone she comes in contact with. Interspersed with flashbacks of Shalini’s relationships with her dazzling yet mentally ill mother, the mysterious but kind Bashir Ahmed, and her withdrawn father, Shalini’s misguided attempts at love, fulfillment, and friendship are poignant. Vijay’s stunning debut novel expertly intertwines the personal and political to pick apart the history of Jammu and Kashmir. Agent: Claudia Ballard, William Morris (Jan.)

From the Publisher

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION

WINNER OF THE 2019 JCB PRIZE IN LITERATURE

SHORTLISTED FOR THE DSC PRIZE IN SOUTH ASIAN LIT

LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE

ONE OF WASHINGTON POST'S 50 NOTABLE WORKS OF FICTION IN 2019

AN INDIES INTRODUCE PICK, AN INDIENEXT SELECTION, A BARNES AND NOBLE DISCOVER GREAT NEW WRITERS SELECTION, AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH, A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY TOP 10 BEST FICTION BOOKS OF 2019

ONE OF HUDSON BOOKSELLER'S BEST FICTION BOOKS OF 2019

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2019 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION

WINNER OF THE 2019 JCB PRIZE IN LITERATURE

SHORTLISTED FOR THE DSC PRIZE IN SOUTH ASIAN LIT

ONE OF WASHINGTON POST'S 50 NOTABLE WORKS OF FICTION IN 2019

ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BEST BOOKS OF 2019

AN INDIES INTRODUCE PICK, AN INDIENEXT SELECTION, A BARNES AND NOBLE DISCOVER GREAT NEW WRITERS SELECTION, AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH, A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY TOP 10 BEST FICTION BOOKS OF 2019

ONE OF HUDSON BOOKSELLER'S BEST FICTION BOOKS OF 2019

ONE OF BOOKBROWSE'S TOP 20 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2019 FOR ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, REFINERY 29, BUSINESS INSIDER, BUSTLE

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2019 FOR ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, REFINERY 29, BUSINESS INSIDER, BUSTLE

“Vijay probes grand themes—tribalism, despotism, betrayal, death, resurrection—in exquisite but unflowery prose, and with sincere sentiment but little sentimentality.”—NEW YORKER

“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. The show-stealer is Shalini’s mercurial mother, an ‘outrageous queen’ of capricious gestures. Vijay smartly resists psychoanalyzing her, implying that the china-shop bulls in our families can be survived but never entirely explained away.”—JAN STUART, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

“‘All finite things reveal infinitude,’ wrote Theodore Roethke in ‘The Far Field.’ That poem, published in Roethke’s final collection in 1964, concludes with the image of ‘a ripple widening from a single stone / Winding around the waters of the world.’ That’s exactly the expanding effect of Madhuri Vijay’s debut novel, which is also titled The Far Field....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.”—RON CHARLES, WASHINGTON POST

“Madhuri Vijay's supremely accomplished debut novel, "The Far Field," . . . . is an expansive and wonderfully immersive work . . . . Vijay gives us a brilliant outsider's view of an exotic, off-the-beaten-track realm and a compelling portrayal of a character gradually unraveling due to forces beyond her control. This is a stunning novel that skillfully grapples with the complexities of human relationships. Madhuri Vijay's career looks very bright indeed.” –MALCOLM FORBES, MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE

“Ms. Vijay is an effortlessly assured prose writer. The book’s length led me to expect something slow and atmospheric, but to my surprise I snapped it up in two sittings. . . . Ms. Vijay makes shrewd use of parallels and asymmetries in these mirrored narratives. Shalini intrudes on Bashir’s son’s household just as Bashir once disrupted hers. The counterpart to the wonderfully sharp-tongued figure of Shalini’s mother is Bashir’s impudent, fearless daughter-in-law, Amina, who steals every scene she’s in.... “The Far Field” is illuminating about the persecutions in Kashmir, but at its heart it is about the ironclad laws of class by which all India is ruled.”—SAM SACKS, WALL STREET JOURNAL

“In Madhuri Vijay’s exquisite debut novel, grief propels a young woman to northern India, where she seeks answers about her mother’s past. She meets people and communities constantly on the brink of political violence, upending her assumptions about herself and her country.”―ELLE

“A story exploring the passage of time and the repercussions of one’s actions sets out to ask the charged question of what it is that we spend our lives searching for.”—VANITY FAIR

"A ghastly secret lies at the heart of Madhuri Vijay’s stunning debut, The Far Field, and every chapter beckons us closer to discovering it....The Far Field chafes against the useless pity of outsiders and instead encourages a much more difficult solution: cross-cultural empathy. —PARIS REVIEW

"A courageous, insightful and affecting debut novel." ECONOMIST

“Loss can make a detective out of anyone, taking us on odd, winding, revelatory journeys toward resolving the pain of the finite. It can also, as Madhuri Vijay so thornily illustrates in her debut novel, The Far Field, blind us from all that’s around us — from our actions and their consequences. Grief, she argues, can be a fundamentally selfish pursuit.... a layered examination of pressing Indian political conflicts...Shalini’s wounded narration — her wistful, nostalgic anguish — still pulses through most intensely, lending the novel the feel of a sorrowful family epic. Here is a singular story of mother and daughter — a loving, broken bond so strong it touches, changes, and hurts countless lives beyond theirs.”—DAVID CANFIELD, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

“Vijay provides that alchemical mix of political examination with personal journey that deepens all great novels. The Far Field plays out along the Indian/Kashmir border and follows a young woman's awakening into the dark realities of her family and her country. As an added bonus, her mother is one of the most memorable characters in contemporary literature. At times brutal, but always tuned to the desperately sweet longing for human connection, Vijay has created a necessary and lovely work that transcends 2018!"―SOUTHERN LIVING

“Exquisite ...Vijay does a superb job of showing how the personal and the political spark off one another to drive change in both. But when violence erupts in Kashmir, difficult choices must be made and sobering lessons learned about privilege, Indian history, class prejudice, violence, and sexuality.”— AMAZON

“Remarkable... engrossing...Vijay’s stunning debut novel expertly intertwines the personal and political to pick apart the history of Jammu and Kashmir.”—PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY (STARRED REVIEW)

“Vijay intertwines her story's threads with dazzling skill. Dense, layered, impossible to pin—or put—down, her first novel is an engrossing tale of love and grief, politics and morality. Combining up-close character studies with finely plotted drama, this is a triumphant, transporting debut.”—BOOKLIST (STARRED REVIEW)

“Vivid...a striking debut.”—KIRKUS REVIEWS

"Gorgeously tactile and sweeping in historical and socio-political scope."BOOKBROWSE

“Dazzling... Vijay’s prose is exquisite—florid and descriptive at times, spare and pared back at others. The story keeps twisting unexpectedly until the end, keeping emotions fraught, questions percolating. It’s a scintillating novel from a truly gifted writer.”—BOOKPAGE (STARRED REVIEW)

“Remarkably vivid ...Vijay's descriptive powers and eloquent prose work brilliantly in awakening the reader to the majestic beauty of Kashmir and the severe hardships of villagers who make their home in its verdant landscape. Vijay's writing is socially astute, exploring taboos of mental illness, female sexuality and religious indifference. It is also politically relevant, a reminder that beautiful but war-torn Kashmir is still a disputed territory, fought over for decades by India and Pakistan.—SHAHINA PIYARALI, SHELF AWARENESS

“I had to remind myself while reading The Far Field that this is the work of a debut novelist, and not a mid-career book by a master writer at the height of her powers. Madhuri Vijay astonishes with her wisdom, her fearlessness, her sure handling of a desperately loaded narrative that's equal parts love story, war story, and family intrigue. Such is the power of Vijay's writing that I finished the book feeling like I'd lived it. Only the very best novels are experienced, as opposed to merely read, and this is one of those rare and brilliant novels.”—BEN FOUNTAIN, author of BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY BURN AGAIN

“I am in awe of Madhuri Vijay. With poised and measured grace, The Far Field tells a story as immediate and urgent as life beyond the page. I will think of these characters – tender and complex, mysterious and flawed, remarkably real to me – for years to come, as though I have lived alongside them.”—ANNA NOYES, author of GOODNIGHT, BEAUTIFUL WOMEN

“Utterly immersive and vividly realized, The Far Field is that rare gem of a novel which effortlessly transports the reader into distant, unfamiliar terrain through the force of a story deeply anchored in the humanity of its characters. Madhuri Vijay’s debut marks the arrival of an astonishing new talent.”—ELLIOT ACKERMAN, author of WAITING FOR EDEN

“The Far Field is remarkable, a novel at once politically timely and morally timeless. Madhuri Vijay traces the fault lines of history, love, and obligation running through a fractured family and country. Few novels generate enough power to transform their characters, fewer still their readers. The Far Field does both.”—ANTHONY MARRA, author of THE TZAR OF LOVE AND TECHNO

“This riveting and unique book faces the most troubling, insoluble questions with a bold, keen clarity that has no patience for anything less than the complete truth, even if that truth is disappointing or merciless or dark. The fierce undertow of Vijay’s prose masterfully propels this story about loyalty, about how we create, sustain, and inevitably break our bonds with other people.”—MERRITT TIERCE, author of LOVE ME BACK

“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 author of LORDS OF FINANCE

"What do we spend our lives searching for? What lasts and what pushes us forward? These are some of the questions Madhuri Vijay’s THE FAR FIELD explores and navigates with a heart on fire. Stunning in its artistry, in its engagement with the world and the personal, this is a profound and monumental achievement composed with rage, vulnerability, humor, grief, and mystery. How dangerous this novel is, in the very best of ways, and how grateful I am for this writer and for her creation."—PAUL YOON, author of THE MOUNTAIN

"A strikingly unusual book full of beauty and surprise.”—SONIA FALEIRO, author of BEAUTIFUL THING

Library Journal - Audio

04/01/2019

Sometimes, pushing "stop" before a book's end might be the best course of action. Seasoned reader Sneha Mathan provides her usual nuanced, affecting narration throughout the 14 hours here, yet even her resonating performance can't prevent the frustration of a stupendous story that veers fatally toward abject disappointment. Still living at home in Bangalore, India, with her widowed father, 30-year-old Shalini remains unmoored, unable to recover from her capricious mother's suicide. After being fired from her job, she heads to Kashmir—India's most politically unstable region—in search of a traveling salesman who used to visit her mother during her childhood; only with this man did her mother ever seem to be truly engaged and joyous. Despite having only the slightest details about Bashir, Shalini miraculously finds his family in a remote Himalayan village and is welcomed by the charming daughter-in-law, who offers Shalini her first experience of true friendship. Vijay's debut is initially—mostly—a gorgeous narrative of love and loss, hope and betrayal, intertwined with a hauntingly insightful introduction to a population constantly under threat. VERDICT That breathtaking story—even enhanced by Mathan's empathic reading—turns sucker-punch when Shalini's naïve entitlement and blinding privilege lead the story into devastating predictability. ["Narrating Shalini's journey in chapters that alternate between past and present and utilizing strong characterizations throughout, Vijay has crafted an engaging, suspenseful, and impressive debut": LJ Winter 2018 review of the Grove hc.]—Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC

JANUARY 2019 - AudioFile

Sneha Mathan voices the first-person narration of Shalini, who experiences a political and emotional awakening as she unravels the mystery of her mother. She journeys from her comfortable Bangalore home to unfamiliar Kashmir to find the man who can show her her mother in a new light. Initially, Mathan's voice sounds too grave to fit Shalini’s disconnected description of herself. However, this seriousness reveals its purpose as Shalini is drawn into the secrets of the man’s family and grows in her understanding of their world and her own. The richness of Mathan's voice gives the sinuous story weight. She enlivens each character’s part with subtle inflections that reflect a range of speech ranging from British English to Hindi accents. M.P.P. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2018-10-28

The chain of events connecting a privileged young Indian woman, her volatile mother, and a tale-spinning Kashmiri merchant leads to tragedy in a story of religious conflict and domestic damage set in contemporary India.

Taking the classic form of a journey, Vijay's vivid debut moves from sophisticated contemporary Bangalore to a harshly beautiful Himalayan mountain village as Shalini, a 30-year-old woman haunted by memories of her sarcastic, restless mother, recounts her painful accumulation of wisdom. As a child, Shalini's home was periodically visited by Bashir Ahmed, a clothing merchant, one of a very few people attuned to Shalini's mercurial mother. Although Bashir Ahmed could tell magical stories, his home life in Kashmir was becoming threatened by Hindu-Muslim tensions provoked by militant activism and the brutal response of the Indian army. Now, attempting to resolve her feelings about her mother's death nine years earlier, Shalini feels Bashir Ahmed might hold the key and travels to remote Kashmir to find him. Her comfortable life is replaced with something more basic as she discovers small communities, kindly individuals, friendship, attraction, a possible new role for herself—and secrets. But Shalini is naïve, and her efforts to help others, and herself, ultimately prove catastrophic. Shuttling between past and present and exploring complicated themes of parental fealty, identity, and religious schism, Vijay's ambitious novel is at its most magnetic when recounting Shalini's immersion in a different world, her embrace by new kinds of family, and the lessons she learns. But its epic length sets up expectations of equally immersive political history, and here the storytelling is cloudier, staffed with clichéd characters. Most memorable are the scenes of stripped-down joy in the mountains where the author's elegant, calm prose and intense evocations of people and places come into their own.

A striking debut, stronger on the micro than the macro.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175670067
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	01/15/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

I am thirty years old and that is nothing.

I know what this sounds like, and I hesitate to begin with something so obvious, but let me say it anyway, at the risk of sounding naïve. And let it stand alongside this: eight years ago, a man I knew vanished from his home in the mountains. He vanished in part because of me, because of certain things I said, but also things I did not have, until now, the courage to say. So, you see, there is nothing to be gained by pretending to a wisdom I do not possess. What I am, what I was, and what I have done, all of these will become clear soon enough.

This country, already ancient when I was born in 1980, has changed every instant I’ve been alive. Titanic events have ripped it apart year after year, each time rearranging it along slightly different seams: prime ministers assassinated, peasant-guerillas waging desperate war in emerald jungles, fields cracking under the iron heel of a drought, nuclear bombs cratering the wide desert floor, lethal gases blasting from pipes and into ten thousand lungs, mobs crashing against mobs and always coming away bloody. Consider this: even now, at this very moment, there are people huddled in a room somewhere, waiting to die. This is what I have told myself for the last eight years, each time I have had the urge to speak. It will make no difference in the end.

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