Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read and review this ARC. Full review to be found on Goodreads and on my website.

I love reading about India - the setting is always so rich and colorful - so it was the perfect backdrop for Vijay's novel. Her main character, Shalini, decides to set out on a journey to find a man that was important to her in her childhood. She travels a long distance and meets a series of powerful characters along the way. Shalini is not a vey likable protagonist (she's careless with people's feelings and pretty self-centered), but she does know how to immerse herself in situations that are outside of her comfort zone. Her journey is a moving (and sometimes shocking) one, uncovering an India that's filled with political strife and poverty.

I absolutely loved Vijay's writing style. Her prose is so sumptuous and full of emotion. She's also super skilled at fleshing out different side characters (which all ended up feeling like real people to me). I would have followed Shalini on more of her adventures just to keep reading Vijay's words. The only problem with this is that the book is really long and felt like it did take a good chunk of time before it got really interesting. With a stricter editing hand, this book would have been a five-star read for me. Otherwise, I can't wait to see what Vijay writes next.

The writing is beautiful but the plot is slow. I wasn't able to connect emotionally with any of the characters.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Another book that I finished in one night and broke my heart. I barely knew anything going into this book, and I think that is a good way to go into this book.

It's an amazing debut with stunning writing and a beautiful story. It's about family and friendship. But mainly it about grief and remorse, important themes that are really well done.

Three years after her mother’s death, 24 year old Shalini decides to leave her privileged life in Bangalore to travel to a village in Kashmir. She wants to track down a traveling salesman who had been her mother’s friend. Her mother had been a complex, sharp-tongued, force of nature who didn’t suffer fools gladly. Frankly, she was a much more interesting character than Shalini, who took naïveté to the level of stupidity. Her chronic self absorption caused terrible harm to people gracious enough to have housed her.

I found the book to be too long and too slow. I kept reading because of the mother and because I was interested in the description of the situation in Kashmir. The political situation is very complicated and I didn’t come close to fully grasping the positions of the various factions. The writing wasn’t bad and I would be willing to read another book by this author, even though I didn’t love this one. 3.5 stars

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

I wasn't sure this book would grab my attention, but man I am so glad that I gave it a chance. Shalini is kind of lost after losing her mother, so she goes out searching for one of her mother's friends. This novel is beautifully written and explores identity and exactly where Shalini fits into her world.

I’ve said it before but I did an elective in Indian literature while at college and loved it. I loved this book. It captured me from page one. It follows Shalini, a privileged girl from Bangalore who while grieving the death of her mother and the loss of her job, leaves her father and home for the Himalayan town of Kashmir in search of a man who forged a friendship her mother years ago.

The story takes us on Shalini’s journey with her – and shows the cruel political realities of the Kashmir regime, the Hindu/Muslim divide, poverty, the broken spirited villagers, betrayal and just the volatility of the community. The characters were so credibility written that it was like a movie. Finally, I really enjoyed that the concept of the book seemed so new and unique.

First I need to say, I hated the ending of this book.
That being said Vijay brought me into a world I was not even close to being familiar with. The smells, the traditions, the customs, etc were all new to me and something I enjoyed learning about while I read about Shalini.
Shalini is a grieving daughter, having just lost her mother at the beginning of the book. She has moved back into her parent's home and is restless for something, but she doesn't know yet know what. Deciding that the death of her mother is somehow connected to a mysterious man who used to visit Shalini and her mother when she was a child, she spontaneously decides to set off and find him. Her trip takes her to a remote village in a troubled region of Kashmir and it forever changes her life.
The journey of this book made up for the ending of the book. It kind of flat lined for me there, but Shalini story of trying to find answers after a loved one's death ran true and getting to know the country of India was exciting.

One of the most beautifully written fiction I've ever read in my entire life. Story is well-done too. Author, Bravo!

This was an interesting read, but it moved slowly at times and I struggled to keep the myriad characters straight. That being said, I think it would be a great recommendation for readers who love cultural fiction.

I love books about Asia and this one is a winner.

Shalini is a young woman adrift. Her beloved, mercurial mother has just died and Shalini is recently graduated from college, living with her father in Bangalore and going through the motions in a dead end job. On a whim, Shalini decides to track down a former friend of her mother’s, a mysterious door-to-door salesman who shared a secret bond with Shalini and her mother. Knowing very little about this man’s whereabouts other than he lived in a remote Himalayan village in Kashmir, Shalini sets off to find him.

Shalini’s journey is a coming of age story, a family drama and an exploration of political, class and cultural strife in northern India. Vijay does a masterful job of developing her characters and creating ambience and atmosphere. I felt like I was there with Shalini every step of the way. It’s a long journey and a slow one at times, but I enjoyed the ride - even though I wanted to smack Shalini upside the head more than once.

Excellent debut novel for Vijay. I will definitely look forward to reading what she writes next!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Grove Press for an Advance Reader Copy of this novel. My review, however, is based on the hard copy version.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital advanced reader's copy for review.

Oh man, it's been a couple of days since I finished the book and still, I have no idea how I feel about it.

So this is the story of Shalini after the death of her mother, and her quest to find Bashir Ahmed. The book has
I loved the promise of the book, and I was so excited to read it, But it didn't live to the expectations. The writing was beautiful, sometimes too beautiful even.
I felt like Shalini was underdeveloped, and she didn't change in all her years form being a child to her thirties, I wanted to see her grow and learn something, but I didn't see it.
I loved the part where she talked about Kashmir, and I liked Saleem and the way he talks about languages, I liked the alternating chapters between the past and the present.

overall the book was a bit of a disappointment; I don't think that it had to be this long.

Thank you Netgalley for this free copy. I enjoyed The Far Field. Shalini leaves her privileged life in Bangalore to visit a remote Himalayan village to seek a friend of her mother's, after her mother's passing. She learns about her mom, grief, and political unrest. It is beautiful and moving and I highly recommend!

After the surprising loss of her mother, Shalini goes on a trip from her privileged life in Bangalore to a remote village in the Himalayas in search of an old friend of her mother's. She begins her journey seeking answers about her mother and a solution to her grief, but she finds a view into the lived experiences of those in violently militarized areas of political unrest.

This is a beautiful and moving tale of grief, of searching for answers that can never be found, of making sense of the past. It's also an important story of political unrest and the way violence can tear families apart. What an incredible, emotional journey. I had to take my time with this book, to let it all sink in. The characters and the story will stick with me for a long time.

The Far Field, set in Bangalore and Kashmir, centers around Shalini and her complicated relationship with her mother and Bashir Ahmed, a Kashmiri clothing vendor who appears at their house one day. Bashir Ahmed stops visiting, and after her mother's death, Shalini travels to Kashmir to search for him. I don't want to give anything away, but I was surprised to see what happened to him.

Shalini is from a privileged family and traveling to Kashmir forced her out of her comfort zone and to try to understand the complexities of Kashmir. She encounters people who are friendly and caring and people who are hostile towards her. Shalini seemed shocked by the hostility at first, but she grew as the story went on. She came to love Kashmir and Bashir Ahmed's family and became protective of them.

One of my favorite parts of this book was during a flashback to the last time Bashir Ahmed was at Shalini's home in Bangalore. Her father hosted a party and wanted Bashir Ahmed to tell his friends about Kashmir, feeling like he was moderate and reasonable. Bashir Ahmed became frustrated and explained that so many Indians felt that Kashmiris should be happy with what India gives them, even if it's not what the Kashmiris need or want and that this view will cause more people to become "extreme." This is such an important passage because it causes the reader to reflect on how their country handles aid. We should be more active in finding out what people need and want rather than telling them to be grateful we even help at all. We don't always know best.

Madhuri Vijay's descriptions were beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed her writing. I loved this debut novel and cannot wait to see what she writes next. I highly recommend The Far Field.

I have lived in Bangalore for 25 years and that was one of the reasons I wanted to read this book. The author describes the city accurately.
The story was a good read but even better was the writing style.

"I am aware that I am taking no risks by recounting any of this, that, for people like me, safe and protected, even the greatest risk is, ultimately, an indulgence. I am aware of the likely futility of all that I have told here, and, I am aware, too, of the thousand ways I have tried to excuse myself in the telling of it. All the same, whatever the flaws of this story or confession or whatever it has turned out to be, let it stand."

After the death of her mother, Shalini, a privileged young woman from Bangalore, sets out on a journey to Kashmir in northern India to find Bashir Ahmed, a Kashmiri salesman who was a frequent visitor to her home when she was young and who she thinks might have something to do with the loss of her mother. Once there, she finds that the region of Kashmir is on edge, with turmoil and violence threatening to erupt at any moment. She stays with a family in a remote village and quickly becomes entangled in their lives; but, she soon finds the closer she grows to them, the more she threatens both their safety and their way of life.

There were so many layers to this book – the politics of Kashmir, the relationship Shalini had with her mother, her journey to find Bashir Ahmed, etc. – but more than anything, I felt that this book was about privilege and its costs. Shalini makes clear from the beginning that, on this journey of self-discovery, she made a lot of mistakes. Although she had often had good intentions, her naivety was destructive, often in unforeseen ways. Others had to pay the cost for her privilege, and while she acknowledges this, she also says that, no matter what she does, “It will make no difference in the end.”

Overall, this book floored me. It was so unexpectedly beautiful and devastating and memorable – and to think, I only picked this up on a whim. The writing was gorgeous and evocative that even the slow parts moved along. The author wrote well-developed multi-faceted characters that utterly invested me in their stories. Not to mention the fact that the cover is striking (if unassuming). Even the narrator of the audiobook was phenomenal: her narration was a completely immersive experience that added an additional layer to the story. Everything combined made this into an unforgettable book that will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for a copy of this eBook in exchange for an honest review.

The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay

5 stars for The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay. This book was interesting and kept me up way past my bed time!

Many thanks to the publisher and netgalley, who provided a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Far Field, simply put, is a privileged girl's journey to find answers about her recently deceased mother. The reader follows Shalini as she travels to an area very different than the one she was raised in and so her adventure begins.
This book had a lot of promise but ended up too plot focused for me. With an underdeveloped main character I found myself unattached to Shalini throughout the entire book. It seemed to try to be both character- and plot-focused rather than going all in in either. I would have enjoyed this book much more if we got more about Shalini or on the flip side, more about the history/unrest of the places she traveled.

Thank you @netgalley and @groveatlantic for this book in exchange for my honest review!
.
.
.