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Meera, the narrator, is seventeen years old when she catches her first glimpse of Dev, performing a song so infused with passion that it arouses in her the first flush of erotic longing. She wonders if she can steal him away from Roopa, her older, more beautiful sister, who has brought her along to see him.
It is only when her son is born that Meera begins to imagine a life of fulfillment. She engulfs him with a love so deep, so overpowering, that she must fear its consequences.
"Suri's vivid portrait of a woman in post-independence India engages timeless themes of self-determination." - Publishers Weekly.
"Non-Indian readers will be able to relate to the family dynamics here, but a passing knowledge of Indian customs and recent history, especially during Indira Gandhi's four-term rule as prime minister (1966–77; 1980–84), would be helpful." - Library Journal.
"The Age of Shiva admittedly has its doldrums. The bland Dev seems unbelievable in the pop music scene. For many, many pages, we wish Meera would rid herself of this parasite. Describing drift, the narrative itself lapses into drift. And those chapters in which Meera addresses her son fall into an irritatingly cloying tone.
Still, the patient reader will be rewarded. Amid a tumultuous era of Indian history, Suri tells a bittersweet love story imbued with timeless mythic overtones. His Meera fascinates and infuriates. What matters most is that he makes us care." - The San Francisco Chronicle.
"While The Age of Shiva is smartly written, you may wish that Suri had cut short this extended foray into Meera's cramped, queasy reality. B." - Entertainment Weekly.
This information about The Age of Shiva 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.
Manil Suri is the internationally acclaimed author of The Death of Vishnu and other books. His work has been translated into twenty-seven languages and received several honors, including winning the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, and being longlisted for the Booker Prize. He is a distinguished professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and lives with his husband in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Author Interview
Link to Manil Suri's Website
Name Pronunciation
Manil Suri: Ma-neel Soo-ree
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