Book
The folded earth
Record details
- ISBN: 9781451633337 (paperback)
-
Physical Description:
print
regular print
269 pages : map ; 22 cm - Edition: First Free Press trade paperback edition.
- Publisher: New York : Free Press, 2012.
- Copyright: ©2011.
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Women teachers -- Fiction Social change -- Fiction Himalaya Mountains Region -- Fiction |
| Genre: | Psychological fiction. |
Available copies
- 13 of 14 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
- 1 of 1 copy available at Smithers Public Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 14 total copies.
Other Formats and Editions
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smithers Public Library | F ROY (Text) | 35101000360953 | Adult Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2012 March #1
They had been married for only six years when Michael trekked into the Himalayas in search of a remote lake few men had ever seen. When word of his death reaches her, Maya's world implodes, leaving her with no family and nowhere to live. A local priest secures her a teaching position in an isolated mountain village, and Maya slowly begins to find her way into the life of a fractured and challenged community. Maya teachers Charu, an illiterate farm girl, to read and write so she can correspond with her lover, now living in Delhi. A curmudgeonly landlord rents Maya a cottage in return for her help with his manuscript, and, most distressing of all, the old man's nephew, Veer, a wilderness guide, touches Maya's heart in ways she no longer thought possible. Roy, acclaimed for An Atlas of Impossible Longing (2011), evocatively draws on the mystery and allure of India's mountain cultures in this tender examination of a compassionate woman's hard-fought reconciliation with her traumatic past, a tale that abounds with sensory delights. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2012 March #2
Gentle comedy, bitter tragedy and grief intertwine in an affectionately delineated portrait of an Indian hill community. While ostensibly offering a leisurely exploration of the town of Ranikhet in the foothills of the Himalayas, Roy (An Atlas of Invisible Longing, 2011) has achieved something larger, a poem to the natural world and its relentless displacement by the developed one. Maya, a young widow whose husband Michael died trekking in the mountains, has come here to be near where his body was found and to teach at a local school. Her landlord, Diwan Sahib, a retired man of influence, is rumored to own a cache of valuable letters between Edwina Mountbatten and Nehru. This secret passion is mirrored in two contemporary romances, Maya's liaison with Diwan's nephew Veer and the love between illiterate hill girl Charu and a cook. Roy pulls politics, society, ecological warning and history into her slow, episodic story, but it's her love for the creatures, landscapes and eternal beauty of this place that inspire it. Finally events gather speed after an act of petty spite against a neighbor and his pet, culminating in death, a terrible discovery and an act of shattering revenge. Despite an occasional sense of drift, this understated, finely observed book expresses a haunting vision. A writer to watch. Copyright Kirkus 2012 Kirkus/BPI Communications.All rights reserved. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2011 November #2
Young and widowed, Maya tries to escape the world and her own troubled past by teaching school in a village high in the foothills. Then outside agitators take over the local elections, splitting the village (and causing trouble for the peasant girl Maya is helping on the side). Her landlord's nice nephew distracts Maya further. Roy did well with her debut, An Atlas of Impossible Longing, which was translated into 14 languages; anyone who loves to read about the Subcontinent should want this.
[Page 51]. (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2013 April #1
A young widow moves to a remote Himalayan village, wishing to escape the trappings of modernity.
[Page 46]. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2012 January #5
After her husband, Michael, dies in a mountain-climbing mishap, Maya flees to the tiny Himalayan town of Ranikhet to escape her past and find peace. While teaching English at a Christian school, she befriends her teenage neighbor and milk delivery girl, Charu, whose lover, Kundan, has recently left the village to work in Delhi. Though he sends Charu letters, she cannot read or write. Maya takes on the role of interlocutor initially, but soon begins teaching Charu so that she can continue the epistolary romance on her own. Meanwhile, Maya finds herself caught up in an unexpected love affair with her landlord's nephew, Veer. Though she has acclimated well to life in the village ("I became a hill person who was only at peace where the earth rose and fell in waves like the sea"), the premature death of her husband still haunts her. Veer seems to be the key to overcoming her grief, but revelations of his past threaten the emotional enclave Maya has fashioned for herself in the lush Indian hills. Similar to the pace of life in the village, Roy's follow-up to An Atlas of Impossible Longing is occasionally slow going but her musical writing and strong imagery compensate, and individual moments sparkle. (Apr.)
[Page ]. Copyright 2012 PWxyz LLC
