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A Novel
by Ruthvika Rao
From the author of the acclaimed novel The Fertile Earth comes a powerful tale of desire, friendship, and rivalry between three inseparable friends over the course of an unforgettable summer.
In 1990's Hyderabad, three teenagers―Arjun, Ruhee, and Ganesh―forge an unexpected bond. Over the course of a single sundrenched summer, they discover love, friendship, and solace from their troubled families. They also discover the Red House, an abandoned house in their neighborhood, which becomes the site of their intimate friendship. But one night at the Red House, an unexpected act of violence shatters their lives forever.
A decade later Ruhee returns to Hyderabad, and Arjun, who has never forgotten his first love, is given a chance to tell the truth, both to himself and to those around him. But the tangled threads of fate, class, and desire remain, as does a lacerating secret.
By turns tender and unsettling, Ruthvika Rao's All Our Evenings is a deeply affecting novel about youthful passion, redemption, and the people we can never let go.
"All Our Evenings is delightfully subversive, with a Patricia Highsmith-esque spin on violence. I was completely enthralled and unable to put it down. Ruthvika Rao captures the period and its social dynamics with such care the novel becomes a mirror for one's own memories. The prose is measured and luminous, and the final movement delivers a twist that's as stunning as it is satisfying." ―Nishanth Injam, author of The Best Possible Experience
"All Our Evenings is a triumph of storytelling―a deeply affecting, atmospheric, haunting novel that explores the destructive nature of passionate love and the long shadows cast by our most emotional choices. Rao's prose is both lyrical and sharp, skillfully navigating the complexities of class, desire, and the secrets that refuse to stay buried. I can't stop thinking about Arjun, Ruhee, Ganesh, and their families, and how our attempts to love on another are often as imperfect as we are. This stunning book resonated within me for days after." ―Lillian Li, author of Bad Asians
This information about All Our Evenings 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.
Ruthvika Rao is from Hyderabad, India. Her debut novel, The Fertile Earth, was a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Chautauqua Prize, the Crossword Book Award, and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. She has taught creative writing at the University of Iowa and the University of Toronto. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and lives in Michigan.
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