The Parted Earth
Synopsis
“I have read many books so far this year, but I can say unequivocally that The Parted Earth has affected me the deepest. For its emotional honesty and insights, for its elegant craftsmanship, and for braiding all of this through a cultural history most of us know nothing about, this is a novel with the gravitas to transform. Don’t miss it.” — Shannon Gibey, Star Tribune
“Enjeti’s debut is as tightly plotted as it is heartfelt.” — Wendy J. Fox, Buzzfeed
“The stunning debut novel…delves deeply into the ramifications of the Partition and its resulting diaspora through the heartrending experiences of three generations. Enjeti masterfully balances the epic with the intimate in a narrative that captures the past while speaking directly to ongoing dialogues of identity, acceptance and culpability.” — Jonathon Haupt, The Post and Courier
“In these opening pages are the intimate hatreds, schisms and eruptions of bloodshed familiar from Partition fiction, from Khushwant Singh’s “Train to Pakistan” to Amit Majmudar’s “Partitions.” …(T)he novel widens to explore[s] the effects the violence and forced migration of Partition have had on later generations oppressed, as one character puts it, with “a burden that isn’t yours, that flows through your blood.” … “The Parted Earth” is about both firsthand trauma and inherited trauma, and it’s galvanized by the modern belief that recovery and remembrance can help to restore what history has broken.” — Wall Street Journal
“The pulse of truth…makes this book feel so urgent and important. Illuminating, absorbing, and resonant.” — Kirkus reviews
“A first novel that adroitly explores the lasting impacts of families fractured and repaired.” — Booklist
“This intergenerational account of remembering and reconciliation sits comfortably alongside works of its kind.” — Publishers Weekly
“When the puzzle pieces come together … it’s both a bittersweet relief and an opportunity for reflection on the complexity of interfaith relationships, the cost of sacrifice and what it means to be home.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“Every family has untold stories buried in the fog of the past,” says Henry Louis Gates Jr. on his PBS series “Finding Your Roots.” Through Shan’s diligence, the fog is dispelled and Deepa’s full story is told. Being told, it can be properly valued. The jumpy structure pays off, and we see the whole tapestry, and it is well-woven.” — Phil Kloer, The Atlanta Journal Constitution
“In this captivating, far-reaching debut, Anjali Enjeti, brings to life one family’s decades-long search for love, peace and a place to call home.” —Jenny Offill, author of Weather and Dept. of Speculation
“The Parted Earth is an epic novel of home and homeland, family and community, love and betrayal. In Anjali Enjeti’s deft hands, the story of a woman’s search for her grandfather, and for a connection to the ancestors, is brought to life. A fantastic debut.” — Laila Lalami, author of The Other Americans
“Epic in scope, intimate in the telling, Anjali Enjeti’s The Parted Earth is a devastating portrayal of Partition and the trauma it wreaked in the generations that followed … A magnificent debut.” — Vanessa Hua, author of A River of Stars
“A deeply affecting novel about the ways in which the fates of individuals and the sub-continent itself were fractured by Partition as well as the magic by which we find our way back to ourselves and each other through time and space.”—Nayomi Munaweera, author of What Lies Between Us
A cross between Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins and Tatiana De Rosnay’s Sarah’s Key, and for fans of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, Anjali Enjeti’s debut novel is a heartfelt and human portrait of the long shadow of the Partition of India on the lives of three generations of women.
The story begins in New Delhi in August 1947, as 16-year-old Deepa navigates the changing politics of her home, finding solace in messages of intricate origami from her secret boyfriend Amir. It also begins 60 years later and half a world away in Atlanta as Deepa’s granddaughter Shan, recovering from a lost pregnancy and the implosion of her marriage, starts the search for her estranged grandmother.
Spanning more than half a century, Enjeti’s The Parted Earth follows hypnotic characters on their search for identity after loss uproots their lives. It is, above all, a novel about families weathering the lasting violence of separation, and how it can often take a lifetime to find unity and peace.