-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
Summary | Discuss | Reviews | More Information | Read-Alikes
A Novel
by Aanchal Malhotra
For fans of All the Light We Cannot See, a lush, sweeping love story about a Hindu perfumer and a Muslim calligrapher, set against the backdrop of partition.
On a January morning in 1938, Samir Vij first locks eyes with Firdaus Khan through the rows of perfume bottles in his family's ittar shop in Lahore. Over the years that follow, the perfumer's apprentice and calligrapher's apprentice fall in love with their ancient crafts and with each other, dreaming of the life they will one day share. But as the struggle for Indian independence gathers force, their beloved city is ravaged by Partition. Suddenly, they find themselves on opposite sides: Samir, a Hindu, becomes Indian and Firdaus, a Muslim, becomes Pakistani, their love now forbidden. Severed from one another, Samir and Firdaus make a series of fateful decisions that will change the course of their lives forever. As their paths spiral away from each other, they must each decide how much of the past they are willing to let go, and what it will cost them.
Lush, sensuous, and deeply romantic, The Book of Everlasting Things is the story of two lovers and two nations, split apart by forces beyond their control, yet bound by love and memory. Filled with exquisite descriptions of perfume and calligraphy, spanning continents and generations, Aanchal Malhotra's debut novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.
What books have you enjoyed so far in 2025, what books are you looking forward to reading?
...Ariel Lahon–reread; The Jackal's Mistress by Chris Bohjalian; The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts; Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt The Book of Everlasting Things by Aanchal Malhotra; and Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
-Sunny
"[A] sweeping debut novel...indelible...What emerges is a transcendent study of the blurring of personal and political, as ordinary people deal with catastrophic historical events." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A long and luxurious tale of love, loss, memory, and place, told against a backdrop of tumultuous historical events…It will be difficult indeed to forget this exquisite story." - Library Journal (starred review)
"A majestic, evocative exploration of the persistence of memory and the human connections that transcend even death." - Booklist (starred review)
"At once sweeping and intimate. With gorgeous prose and careful research, Malhotra brings to life a world rich with Indian perfumery, Urdu calligraphy, and a romance that defies time and space. A stunning book that reminds you of what it is to fall in love." - Jenny Tinghui Zhang, author of Four Treasures of the Sky
"Spanning generations and continents, Malhotra's debut is both thought-provoking and deliciously romantic. The Book of Everlasting Things will awaken your senses and leave you captivated until the last page." - Lara Prescott, New York Times bestselling author of The Secrets We Kept
"Magical, illuminating, and thought-provoking! There is true love, longing, loss, and healing inside The Book of Everlasting Things. Malhotra writes with the power of a novelist who is the master of her craft." - Nguyen Phan Que Mai, internationally bestselling author of The Mountains Sing
This information about The Book of Everlasting Things was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Aanchal Malhotra is a writer and oral historian from New Delhi, India. A co-founder of the Museum of Material Memory, Malhotra has written two nonfiction books on the human history and generational impact of the 1947 Partition, titled Remnants of Partition and In the Language of Remembering. The Book of Everlasting Things is her debut novel.
If you liked The Book of Everlasting Things, try these:
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
by Kiran Desai
Published 2026
A spellbinding story of two young people whose fates intersect and diverge across continents and years—an epic of love and family, India and America, tradition and modernity, by the Booker Prize–winning author of The Inheritance of Loss.
by Shobha Rao
Published 2019
A searing, electrifying debut novel set in India and America, for readers of Rupi Kaur, about the extraordinary bond between two girls driven apart by circumstances but relentless in their search for one another.
by Amit Chaudhuri
Published 2016
A beguiling new novel, at once wistful and ribald, about a day in the life of two Indian men in London, each coping in his own way with alienation, solitariness, and the very art of living.
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
