Tomb of Sand
Ratings8
Average rating2.9
15
Ratings8
Average rating2.9
WINNER OF THE 2022 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE
A playful, feminist, and utterly original epic set in contemporary northern India, about a family and the inimitable octogenarian matriarch at its heart.
“A tale tells itself. It can be complete, but also incomplete, the way all tales are. This particular tale has a border and women who come and go as they please. Once you’ve got women and a border, a story can write itself . . .”
Eighty-year-old Ma slips into a deep depression after the death of her husband. Despite her family’s cajoling, she refuses to leave her bed. Her responsible eldest son, Bade, and dutiful, Reebok-sporting daughter-in-law, Bahu, attend to Ma’s every need, while her favorite grandson, the cheerful and gregarious Sid, tries to lift her spirits with his guitar. But it is only after Sid’s younger brother—Serious Son, a young man pathologically incapable of laughing—brings his grandmother a sparkling golden cane covered with butterflies that things begin to change.
With a new lease on life thanks to the cane’s seemingly magical powers, Ma gets out of bed and embarks on a series of adventures that baffle even her unconventional feminist daughter, Beti. She ditches her cumbersome saris, develops a close friendship with a hijra, and sets off on a fateful journey that will turn the family’s understanding of themselves upside down.
Rich with fantastical elements, folklore, and exuberant wordplay, Geetanjali Shree’s magnificent novel explores timely and timeless topics, including Buddhism, global warming, feminism, Partition, gender binary, transcending borders, and the profound joys of life. Elegant, heartbreaking, and funny, it is a literary masterpiece that marks the American debut of an extraordinary writer.
Translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell
Author’s name pronounced: Ghee-TAHN-juh-lee Shree
Reviews with the most likes.
I'm not usually one to balk at long novels, but I would have enjoyed this one a lot more had it been around a third of the length. I'd be happy on one level to see someone pull out a cleaver and produce a bastardised version, leaving the narrative framework that a western reader would feel safest with and leaving dense and unfamiliar modes of address, stories and references in a messy heap on the floor, but I'd know somehow that the true heart of the novel would be left there with the offal.
I couldn't find peace with the seemingly redundant meta-commentary. “There's no harm in starting the story right here, that is, the way we're doing it right now,” it's stated early on. “Not much need be said about [whomever/whatever], as the story doesn't really concern [them/it],” begging the question of why this subject was dragged up in the first place. These explicit goiters of inefficiency, as George Saunders might refer to them, layered on frustration for me that was not shaken off by any later re-incorporation or reveal.
I am grateful for the exposure to themes of partition, despite the opening of part three being maybe the most lost I've ever been reading a book.
I wanted more on Bahu and her Reeboks.
The vastness and individuality of each character make this book seem like an epic. The wittiness of Shree and the richness of the prose made me delighted and entertained throughout the book. The narrative is often dreamlike, unjunctured, and unfiltered, which made the experience more raw. Despite a seemingly uneventful storyline (particularly in part 1) the depth of thematic exploration makes every moment significant. What i liked the most was nuanced portrayal of intricate human relationships, from the dynamic between Ma and Beti, Beti and Bade, to the complexities involving Ma and Bahu, Ma and Bade, KK and Beti, Ma and Rosie, Rosie and Beti- each interaction and internal dialogue revolves in multidimensional authenticity.
But, all of these aside, I felt like the translation tried to be too literal in the sense of the original Hindi prose, and sometimes it felt quite meandering and awkward.
P.S: I haven't read many books with an older woman protagonist, and it was such a delight to read one.
3.5 stars/5
This book is one of those that instead of telling you a story it takes you on a jurnany. Something that for sure has to be done correctly in order for me to like it.
There may not be alot happening spesificly in the book. Ok yes there is stuff happening. But there is not much of a greater storyline? You learn and see alot of diffrent realtions between people. There is a deep theme about the complexity of humen relations and how to handle grief.
It also gives you a somewhat realistic wiev and look at how loosing somone as a wive in India might be. the loss and depression of not knwoing what to do as such.
For me this story was kinda not my taste, I tend to want a greater storyline and this simply only had smaller ones. It was not my kind of taste but also not really terrible. The writing style was also kinda denser and in need for more analysing than i wanted it to be.
