Publishers Weekly
03/22/2021
Enjeti documents the impact of India’s Partition on successive generations in her immersive debut novel (after the essay collection Southbound). In 1947, British India is on the brink of being decolonized, with the lives of millions hanging in the balance. Hindu teenager Deepa Khanna’s doctor parents confront escalating hostilities from Hindu Indians because of their willingness to treat Muslims, while Deepa becomes secretly attracted to her Muslim friend Amir. After Deepa’s parents are killed in an attack, she moves to London and Amir leaves for Pakistan. The story then shifts to Deepa’s granddaughter Shan, who, following a miscarriage and subsequent divorce in 2016, begins digging into her past, finally uncovering the reason for her grandmother’s aloofness. Deepa’s experience renders her “unknowable” to Shan, filling Deepa with a grief that “seemed to burden generations of Khannas” with guilt. Meanwhile, other stories emerge of the Partition, from characters such as Shan’s neighbor, Chandani Singh, who supports Shan through her difficulties, and Chandani’s late husband, Harjeet, spinning an increasingly broad set of voices. While no less affecting, these supporting accounts receive an imbalanced, sometimes disproportionate attention that can detract from the novel’s main characters. Still, this intergenerational account of remembering and reconciliation sits comfortably alongside works of its kind. (May)
From the Publisher
May Preview: Most Anticipated (This Month), The Millions
May 2021 Reads for the Rest of Us, Ms. Magazine
12 Must-Read Books for May, The Chicago Review
44 Books By Women of Color to Read in 2021, Electric Literature
27 Debuts to Look Forward to in the First Half of 2021, Electric Literature
New Southern books we’re eager to read in 2021, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Finalist for the Townsend Prize for Fiction
"Both about firsthand trauma and inherited trauma...galvanized by the modern belief that recovery and remembrance can help restore what history has broken.”—The Wall Street Journal
"When the puzzle pieces come together at the end...it’s both a bittersweet relief & an opportunity for reflection on the complexity of interfaith relationships, the cost of sacrifice & what it means to be home.” —The San Francisco Chronicle
"Like her characters, Enjeti ultimately reaches for hope. The Parted Earth is a testament to the tremendous strength of the people of India and Pakistan who found the courage to begin again." —Shelf Awareness
"An auspicious fiction debut." —The Chicago Review of Books
"When traditional family ties fray—here, a legacy of generational trauma—other kinds of love and support often grow. As a result, chosen family becomes a strong influence in The Parted Earth. Through the support of women like Chandani and Gertrude, Enjeti highlights the unique bonds and challenges found within such intense, complex friendships." —Chapter16
"Anjali Enjeti has created a first novel that adroitly explores the lasting impacts of families fractured and repaired.”—Booklist
"Though an author's note says that only the historical aspects of this story are nonfictional, the fact that a character shares a name with one of Enjeti's grandmothers (as seen in the dedication) underlines the pulse of truth that makes this book feel so urgent and important. Illuminating, absorbing, and resonant." —Kirkus Reviews
"This intergenerational account of remembering and reconciliation sits comfortably alongside works of its kind." —Publishers Weekly
"The Parted Earth is an epic novel of home and homeland, family and community, love and betrayal. In Anjali Enjeti’s deft hands, the story of a woman’s search for her grandfather, and for a connection to the ancestors, is brought to life. A fantastic debut." —Laila Lalami, author of The Other Americans
"In this captivating, far-reaching debut, Anjali Enjeti, brings to life one family's decades-long search for love, peace and a place to call home." —Jenny Offill, Weather
"Epic in scope, intimate in the telling, Anjali Enjeti's The Parted Earth is a devastating portrayal of Partition and the trauma it wreaked in the generations that followed. The gripping love story of Deepa and Amir cuts across decades, in a journey through New Delhi, London, Atlanta and across the Indian diaspora. A magnificent debut."—Vanessa Hua, author of A River of Stars
"A deeply affecting novel about the ways in which the fates of individuals and the sub-continent itself were fractured by Partition as well as the magic by which we find our way back to ourselves and each other through time and space."—Nayomi Munaweera, author of What Lies Between Us
Kirkus Reviews
2021-03-03
Three generations of an Indian family deal with the aftermath of the 1947 Partition.
Enjeti's fiction debut, a carefully constructed riddle of a story told in clean, simple prose, begins in New Delhi in the hot summer of 1947, when supersmart 16-year-old Deepa gets her first taste of romance, finding origami notes from handsome Amir hidden in a plant in her family's garden. But the precarious political situation in India quickly turns toxic as the British government carries out its plan to divide the country into two parts—majority Hindu, majority Muslim, now India and Pakistan. With violence exploding around them and Amir's Muslim family set to leave town, the two plight their troth. The next section of the book, set mostly in 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia, centers on Deepa's granddaughter, a young American woman originally named Shanti—she's changed it to Shan—who is looking forward to partnership at her law firm and the birth of her first child. When her life is turned upside down, she connects with an Indian immigrant neighbor, and journeys of discovery begin for both women, with the help of a remembrance and reconciliation website similar to those projects that have been created to heal the wounds of the past in Africa, Australia, and elsewhere. Though an author's note says that only the historical aspects of this story are nonfictional, the fact that a character shares a name with one of Enjeti's grandmothers (as seen in the dedication) underlines the pulse of truth that makes this book feel so urgent and important.
Illuminating, absorbing, and resonant.
