"With the smooth suspense of a novel and the openness of a journal, Bhat’s writing is transportive as it pops from one major event to the next. . . Bhat’s novel is a slice of life that will either ring eerily true, or be a highly educational experience in empathy."—Associated Press
"A powerful, surprising and terrifying meditation on girlhood, as dark as it is funny. There is an Edward Scissorhands quality to Nina, the book’s heroine; the power and accuracy of her insight cuts those around her, but none as deeply as herself. And yet, what a pleasure it is to be cut open by the knife of Nina’s thoughts and the power of Shashi Bhat’s prose. In The Most Precious Substance on Earth, all the best punchlines do permanent damage."—Rufi Thorpe, author of The Knockout Queen
"With language as lovely as it is razor sharp, Shashi Bhat paints an indelible portrait of the pleasure and pain of adolescence—and the scars it leaves behind. Like the young woman at its center, this novel-in-stories has a fierce voice, a soft beauty, and a huge heart."—Robin Wasserman, author of Mother Daughter Widow Wife
“Honest, hilarious, and profoundly affecting, The Most Precious Substance on Earth is rife with moments of such emotional clarity they made me gasp, and are still ringing in my mind days later. Bhat writes with such a deep understanding of the world that by the end of the book, I felt I understood it a little better, too.”—Amy Jones, author of Every Little Piece of Me
“High school is a setting ready-made for drama, a fact that Shashi Bhat exploits to great effect in her glorious novel. Bhat precisely captures adolescence with all its ennui and angst, and she is a master of observation, finding humor in the quotidian. Full of wit and insight, The Most Precious Substance on Earth is a joy to read. A sheer delight.”—Sharon Bala, author of The Boat People
“How refreshing to have a character as witty, as vibrant, as sensitive as Nina. The Most Precious Substance on Earth is a brilliant, laugh-out-loud funny, and dangerously good coming-of-age story that offers sharp commentary on the very real realities women and girls negotiate every single day. Come for the laughter, stay for the wisdom. Shashi Bhat has crafted something special. More than a must-read, it is a must-share.”—Téa Mutonji, author of Shut Up You’re Pretty
"An empowering and liberatory coming-of-age novel for 'the girls who stay quiet.'"—Kirkus Reviews
"Bhat (The Family Took Shape) balances humor and pathos in this savvy coming-of-age story. . . [Bhat] does an exceptional job revealing the turmoil under Nina’s placid facade as she navigates dating, socializing, and the downward trajectory of her career. It adds up to a bold statement about the impact of a young woman’s trauma."—Publishers Weekly
"Nina frustrates, humors, horrifies, and exhilarates in the scope of these pages. Reading her life on the page, though fictional, feels voyeuristic in that dusty-yearbook way, and ultimately I truly lost myself in the spectatorship."—Chicago Review of Books
"Potent. . .Savvy readers will realize early that Bhat's narrative is no easy read, but committed audiences will also parse, appreciate and retain what Nina has curated as 'a gallery of only good things.'"
—Shelf Awareness
"Bhat’s debut about the rocky coming of age of an Indian Canadian young woman is disarming, disquieting, and filled with 1990s nostalgia nuggets."—Library Journal
04/25/2022
Bhat (The Family Took Shape) balances humor and pathos in this savvy coming-of-age story set in Halifax, Nova Scotia. At 14, bright, funny Nina crushes on her English teacher and loses her virginity to him. While her parents pray to Hindu gods and goddesses, Nina hangs out with her best friend, Amy, cutting classes and sharing inside jokes. After Amy drops out and leaves home, Nina’s life implodes: she attends college, but struggles academically and later drops out of a graduate creative writing program. After she finds work as a 10th grade English teacher, one of the boys in her class insists on carrying her bag and writes about her in a class assignment, which triggers the trauma caused by her high school English teacher, the complete details of which Bhat keeps murky until late in the narrative. The ending feels a bit open, but Bhat offers memorable prose (describing Amy, Nina narrates, “her hugs have a soothing weight, like an X-ray blanket”) and does an exceptional job revealing the turmoil under Nina’s placid facade as she navigates dating, socializing, and the downward trajectory of her career. It adds up to a bold statement about the impact of a young woman’s trauma. Agent: Stephanie Sinclair, CookeMcDermid Agency. (June)Correction: An earlier version of this review misstated the book's title. This reviews has also been updated to clarify a plot point.
08/12/2022
DEBUT Indian Canadian Bhat's debut about the rocky coming of age of an Indian Canadian young woman is disarming, disquieting, and filled with 1990s nostalgia nuggets. Told in choppy, time-hopping vignettes, the novel follows Nina from her first year of high school, where she's crushed out on her English teacher and trying to hold on to her best friend Amy, to her return to her parents' house after a breakdown at a U.S. college creative writing program. The possible cause of the breakdown might be the casually brutal assault by the same English teacher when Nina was 14. This incident is barely mentioned, but it reverberates through all of Nina's encounters with men, most of whom are awful, clueless, or at the very least "all wrong" for her. Nina's wry observations of school, friendships, Canadian cross-cultural exchanges, and family dynamics elevate the story. VERDICT Like My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell, Bhat's novel shows how life-altering and destructive sexual abuse can be. Unlike the protagonist of Russell's book, Nina is less obsessed and broken, but damaged nonetheless.—Liz French
2022-04-13
Bhat’s candid novel follows Indian Canadian teenager Nina from ninth grade through her mid-30s as she slowly comes to terms with a devastating secret.
In 1990s Halifax, Nina is an awkward 14-year-old dealing with her loving but often worried parents, who are pious Hindus; her growing alienation from her best friend; and an experience with a teacher, the consequences of which will continue to ripple beneath the surface of her life for years. The novel, which is divided into 13 impeccably titled, short story–like chapters including “Why I Read Beowulf” and “You Are Loved By Me,” follows Nina as she goes in and out of an MFA program in Baltimore, teaches high school English (which is sometimes “almost a high” and other times “like being an air traffic controller—just…too much”), and joins Toastmasters to try to manage her self-loathing. She navigates the alternately cringey and threatening world of modern dating with guys who would “take whatever [they] could.” Bhat approaches her weighty subject matter with grace and humor and, in doing so, finds a way of exploring trauma that is both realistic and tender. Unlike other coming-of-age novels that focus on the teenage or young adult years, in this one Bhat takes readers downstream and examines how those pivotal times continue to shape the protagonist as she approaches middle age. Suffused with pop-culture references including To Catch a Predator and the iconic line “We are the weirdos, Mister,” from the 1996 film The Craft, the novel could also be a parable for a modern world struggling to come to terms with its own secrets amid the reverberations of the #MeToo movement.
An empowering and liberatory coming-of-age novel for “the girls who stay quiet.