Superb writing. Basically a collection of short stories. While all were well written, not all of them were equally engaging.

I don't actually remember many of these stories since I thought I had reviewed this and didn't.

I was drawn to reading this debut short story collection by the beauty of its deep-blue, silver-illustrated cover and the strength of blurbs from excellent cutting-edge writers Helen Oyeyemi and Sjon. These imaginative stories do feel in some fundamental way to be aligned with these authors because of the way they similarly bend reality to give new insight into society, language and our perceptions of the past. The subjects of Tharoor's stories are far-ranging from a town awaiting its imminent destruction by an invading army to a conqueror cursed with impotence to a Russian ship hedged in by icebergs. They span great swaths of time from soldiers conversing in a heated battle in 190 BC to diplomats from dying nations marooned on a luxury spaceship in a dystopian future. Yet, there is a curious unity between these invigorating and fascinating tales which ponder the evolution of our civilization by focusing on migration, storytelling and what's left in and selected out of recorded history: “Humanity, after all, was nothing but a library.”

Several stories consider the way in which different cultures intermingle by appropriating, borrowing, learning and stealing from each other. In some voyages the explorers set out to discover and plunder, but instead find their dreams of conquest stymied by violent confrontations with the unknown. The erratic and far-reaching story ‘Letters Home’ considers many kinds of these journeys all over the world which are cut short. There's a sense of possible touchstones between civilizations which are lost through accidental blunders and chance. The story 'The Astrolabe' features a captain who has lost his ship and crew before washing on the shore of a strange island. What could have been a tale like 'The Tempest' or Robinson Crusoe hands its story over to the island's native population who consider the captain's “advancements” and dramatically reject him. Other stories consider the cross-flow of cultures in more contemporary settings such as 'Cultural Property' where a student contemplates reclaiming an artefact found on a university campus or 'The Loss of Muzaffar' where a dazzlingly talented immigrant chef caters to a wealthy NYC family against the backdrop of 9/11.

Two compelling stories show a more academic meeting point between one person and another from dramatically different social and economic groups to consider issues of cultural appropriation. In the title story ‘Swimmer Among the Stars’ an elderly woman's voice is recorded by ethnographers as she is the last person to speak her native language. She considers how “Humans always lose more history than they ever possess.” Also, the story gives a deeply fascinating perspective on the social meaning of words and language's evolution. It incorporates the way folklore is imbued with personal and political stories. The story ‘Portrait with Coal Fire’ depicts a Skype conversation between a magazine photographer and a miner discussing how the meaning his life and family appear in photographs that were taken. There is some fundamental break happening in the translation between the subject, the photograph and the viewer which creates a “chronic voyeuristic relation” as described by Susan Sontag in her famous essay 'On Photography'. This conversation is further complicated by the translator who is necessary for the photographer to speak to his subject.

One of the most sustained sections of the book features a series of short retellings of legends from Arabic literature that depict Alexander the Great or Iskandar (as Muslim hero). Here the leader's insatiable lust for power and control over the world sees him rampage through different nations and even journey to the bottom of the ocean to claim it for his own. This conqueror's perspective is the opposite of the view we're given in 'Tale of the Teahouse' where we feel the increasing alarm of a city about to be invaded. Tharoor has a flair for depicting clashes for power and dominance that is both dramatic and meditative. His writing reminds me strongly of Jessie Greengrass' short stories – not so much in style, but the way they contemplate the philosophical meaning of how people throughout history have flung themselves out into the great unknown to reshape civilization and their understanding of themselves. “Swimmer Among the Stars” is a deeply thoughtful book as well as being a delight to read for its imaginative leaps in storytelling.

Really pleasant surprise. The best thing I can say about this original and wonderful collection is that it doesn't take Italo Calvino's name in vain.
I enjoyed it so much that I've included it in my blog last recommended reading post.

"Life can be comfortable among the ruins," a line from the story "Cultural Property," sums up many of these stories. Different cultures amid destruction, from the past, future, or an imagined present. Beautiful details and interesting scenarios. I didn't feel like I was reading anything I had read before.

Some of my highlights:

United Nations in Space
The rulers of the world are watching the world fall apart, and worse, they've run out of funds to pay the proprietor of the spaceship...

Tale of the Teahouse
A city is awaiting complete and utter destruction by the Khan's Army, and they decide to keep business as usual. I loved the description of the "cockfighters who loved nothing more than long conversations with librarians."

Letters Home
Remnants of worldwide cities of the past... one of the longer stories told in different sections.

Swimmer Among the Stars is a collection of poetic, snarky short stories. Why snarky? Because on the surface, they're often kind of nonsense, or at the least, silly. You can read them at face value and simply get a goofy little plot, like the diplomats playing tennis in zero gravity. But there's more to each story if you simply think a little deeper - the diplomats are in zero gravity because the world is dying. They're mourning the loss of Earth, the result of human carelessness and technological advancement. It's a warning tale, of a sorts.

Most of the stories are like that - sure, not all contain warnings, but all offer some insight into the past, present, or future. This is the kind of collection that would be perfect for a college course - choosing one or two stories to discuss in depth. Or even a book club, though again, I think you'd have to stick to one or two; otherwise, there's simply too much to take in.

I think my favorite was the title story, Swimmer Among the Stars. It's poignant and lovely, and I keep thinking about the line, "Humans always lose more history than they ever possess."

Makes you stop and think, doesn't it?

This collection of short stories is very interesting, and the prose is beautifully written. It has a dreamlike quality and is so lyrical.

Deep, meaningful novel so many would enjoy as much I as I did.

Pleasant surprise. Immensely enjoyable. For a while now I've been reading novels and it was something of an effort to readjust to a short story form, but this book attracted me on Netgalley, something about the title, something about the cover and it was short enough to not require a major commitment. It wasn't a love at first sight, more of a tentative attraction that turned into love around the third story (my favorite) and from then on maintained a steady like to love ratio. I didn't dislike any of the stories. Every one was different, not quite slices of life, more like slices of dreams. Magic realism, maybe, but again not quite. It'll probably be unavoidably compared to Rushdie if only because both feature eastern motifs, but the author is talented enough to stand on his own literary feet as it were. There is a hypnotic beauty to his writing, whether the subjects are more realistic of more fairy tale like. These stories take you out of this world for a while. How can you ask for more. I'm dangerously close to awed and this is certainly a most auspicious of debuts. Thanks Netgalley.

I loved the quirky, diverse tales in Swimmer Among the Stars. As a keen linguist, my favourite story was the title piece about the last speaker of a language. However, I also enjoyed the tea room tale, the Alexander the Great mini stories, and the elephant's voyage. There were no duds amongst the collection, only certain tales that appealed to me more than others. This collection is a real masterclass in short story-telling that I highly recommend to all lovers of the form.

A collection of short stories I decided to skip after reading the first one.

This collection started off so strongly with the title story. “Swimmer Among the Stars” was absolutely beautiful, from concept to execution. It’s a story that makes you think that you can’t quite believe your luck that you’ve found such a gorgeous piece of writing to enjoy again and again.

Unfortunately, that was the only story in the collection that captured my attention. Though several other stories had interesting concepts, I was immensely bored throughout the remainder of the collection. I am so sorry to say that I had to force myself to finish reading it.

These are original, moving stories--brilliantly written about people and places that we rarely find portrayed in American books with such detail, grace, and clarity. Highly recommended.