Far Field (Vijay) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
In Madhuri Vijay’s exquisite debut novel, grief propels a young woman to northern India, where she seeks answers about her mother’s past. She meets people and communities constantly on the brink of political violence, upending her assumptions about herself and her country.
Elle


Vijay provides that alchemical mix of political examination with personal journey that deepens all great novels. The Far Field plays out along the Indian/Kashmir border and follows a young woman's awakening into the dark realities of her family and her country. As an added bonus, her mother is one of the most memorable characters in contemporary literature. At times brutal, but always tuned to the desperately sweet longing for human connection, Vijay has created a necessary and lovely work that transcends 2018!
Brian Lampkin - Southern Living


A ghastly secret lies at the heart of Madhuri Vijay’s stunning debut, The Far Field, and every chapter beckons us closer to discovering it.… The Far Field chafes against the useless pity of outsiders and instead encourages a much more difficult solution: cross-cultural empathy.
Madeline Day - Paris Review


(Starred Review) Vijay’s remarkable debut novel is an engrossing narrative of individual angst played out against political turmoil in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state in the late 2000s.… [This] stunning debut novel expertly intertwines the personal and political.
Publishers Weekly


[A] young woman in search of herself.… Narrating Shalini's journey in chapters that alternate between past and present and utilizing strong characterizations throughout, Vijay has crafted an engaging, suspenseful, and impressive debut. —Shirley Quan, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA
Library Journal


(Starred Review) Vijay intertwines her story's threads with dazzling skill. Dense, layered, impossible to pin—or put—down, her first novel is an engrossing tale of love and grief, politics and morality.… [A] triumphant, transporting debut.
Booklist


[The] epic length sets up expectations of equally immersive political history, and here the storytelling is cloudier, staffed with cliched characters.… [Still,] the author's elegant, calm prose and intense evocations of people and places come into their own. A striking debut.
Kirkus Reviews