The Far Field is both strident and dynamic. This book is remarkable both in its content and its beautiful cover art. Shalini, loses her mother and then evaluates both her life and that of her late mother. During this evaluation, Shalini becomes curious as to what happened to one of her mother's dear friends whom she hadn't seen since childhood.

Shalini's curiosity takes her from her home in Bangalore and leads her to a remote village in Kashmir where she finds a connection not only to the villagers of Kashmir but also to the region itself. However, in these turbulent times, is Kashmir physically and emotionally safe for Shalini? Is Kashmir safe for the generous villagers she’s now grown a connection to?

Author Madhuri Vijay’s debut book of literary fiction, The Far Field, has teeth and is an instant favorite for me. It invoked so many emotions that surprised me in a fantastic way.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Synopsis from the Publisher/NetGalley.com
“The Far Field is remarkable, a novel at once politically timely and morally timeless. Madhuri Vijay traces the fault lines of history, love, and obligation running through a fractured family and country. Few novels generate enough power to transform their characters, fewer still their readers. The Far Field does both.”—Anthony Marra, author ofThe Tzar of Love and Techno

Gorgeously tactile and sweeping in historical and socio-political scope, Pushcart Prize-winner Madhuri Vijay’sThe Far Field follows a complicated flaneuse across the Indian subcontinent as she reckons with her past, her desires, and the tumultuous present.

In the wake of her mother’s death, Shalini, a privileged and restless young woman from Bangalore, sets out for a remote Himalayan village in the troubled northern region of Kashmir. Certain that the loss of her mother is somehow connected to the decade-old disappearance of Bashir Ahmed, a charming Kashmiri salesman who frequented her childhood home, she is determined to confront him. But upon her arrival, Shalini is brought face to face with Kashmir’s politics, as well as the tangled history of the local family that takes her in. And when life in the village turns volatile and old hatreds threaten to erupt into violence, Shalini finds herself forced to make a series of choices that could hold dangerous repercussions for the very people she has come to love.

With rare acumen and evocative prose, in The Far Field Madhuri Vijay masterfully examines Indian politics, class prejudice, and sexuality through the lens of an outsider, offering a profound meditation on grief, guilt, and the limits of compassion.

This substantial, character-driven debut novel invites readers to travel to places beyond roads. We follow first-person narrator Shalini on a quest to escape grief and to excavate secrets in this adventurous coming-of-age story. She journeys from urban Bangalore, India to remote mountains of Jammu Kashmir determined to both escape her own post-college privilege and to find a man, Bashir, that her mother once loved. Shalini navigates between privilege and poverty, between knowledge and self-doubt. Prose is lyrical, descriptive, and seasoned with terms from the Indian subcontinent, a region alive with diverse religious, cultural, and linguistic currents. Highly recommended for readers who love a twist of politics and adventure/travel in their reading. Full review on Bookbrowse.com

This story follows the life of Shalini who is dealing with the death of her mother 3 years prior. Through a current timeline and flashbacks, the reader learns of their rocky relationship and the introduction of a foreign character, Bashir Ahmed. While the writing was exquisite, I didn't understand a lot of the book. Some I attribute to cultural differences but others I just felt were not fleshed out well enough for the reader. I was annoyed with the privileges Shalini took for granted and her lack of thought about the possible impact of her choices might make to those around her.

Madhuri Vijay’s novel tells the story of Shalini, the daughter of a middle-class family in Bangalore. As Shalini grows from a child to an adult, she separates from her parents: from her childish wish to *be* them, to a critical sometimes harsh independent teen then young adult. On a somewhat less than well-considered impulse, Shalini goes to Kashmir to find a man who played a part in her childhood relationship with her mother. What she finds there, and how it changes both her view of herself, and her view of her relationship with the world, are the heart of this well-told story.

The Far Field follows Shalini, a young woman who is adrift and grieving after her mother’s death, as she journeys from her comfortable home in urban Bangalore to a Kashmiri mountain village. She is searching for a man who had disappeared from her mother’s life years before. But while she seeks to unravel the events that led to her mother’s death, Shalini’s presence sparks danger for the local residents.

Madhuri Vijay’s prose is elegant and understated, and she does such an amazing job of evoking the sights, sounds and smells of each locale in such vivid detail, that it’s almost like being there. The bustling streets and shops of Bangalore, the insularity and tensions of military-occupied Kishtwar, a struggling remote village against a backdrop of spectacular mountains: all are brought to life with startling clarity. The setting and its inherent tensions catalyse the dramatic events, but you don’t need more than a passing familiarity with Kashmir’s history to follow this story.

Virtually every character is emotionally distant, either by inclination, upbringing or political necessity, and while this does at times make for a chilly read, it fits the book completely. For the Kashmiri characters their outward reserve is part stoicism, part ingrained secretiveness required for survival in an area defined by decades-long territorial disputes. They are all grieving the death or disappearance of loved ones, much like Shalini, the fish-out-of-water narrator. Some much-needed vitality is injected in the forms of two characters: Shalini’s mother, audacious, brittle and erratic, who calls her daughter ‘little beast’; and sunny Amina, a Kashmiri villager whose hospitality towards Shalini has disastrous consequences.

At 450 pages this isn’t a quick read, and the story takes its time to unspool. I never found it boring though, and it struck me that as Shalini was adjusting to the slower pace of life in a mountain village, I was being asked to do the same. The Far Field is an absorbing read and a very assured debut.

3.5 stars

This is an emotional story. It gives the reader an idea of the Indian culture. I’ve read a few books that have taken place in India, so I looked forward to reading this one. There are solid character arcs, though some are a bit more developed than others. The story is told in alternating chapters (present and past). The reason for Shalini’s journey becomes apparent as the story unfolds. Rich prose abounds in this debut release. A bit more action would have been nice, but it was an enjoyable read overall.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley, but I wasn’t required to leave a positive review.

I wish that I could give this book more than five stars because that is how much I loved. It's beautiful and lyrical. It pulls you in from the very beginning until the end. This book really deserves all of the positive attention that it's receiving. Pick it up and find out for yourself why. Happy reading!

A beautifully written book about growing up in India. A novel full of corruption, complicated family dynamics, and the consequences that follow difficult choices. The language in this book is so descriptive and transported me to India, a place I have never been, and really made me feel like I was there. This is a fictional book but the characters seemed very real to me. This is not a fast read but it is compelling and really drew me in from the beginning. I was looking for a read outside of my normal genre and picked this book because I wanted to learn more about what it would be like to grow up in India. I am so glad I read it. The Far Field is not a book I will soon forget.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Press for the opportunity to read this advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review. You can pick up a copy of The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay on January 19, 2019.

Madhuri Vijay has done a masterful job with plot, characters and setting. I'm generally pleased if two of the three are done well, but when all three are, I can't put the book down. I read this one in one greedy gulp, and kept thinking of it when I could not be reading.

I appreciated the themes of this story- chiefly, coming of age, grappling to understand a complicated parent, and the struggle for crosscultural understanding. Shalini is a very flawed protagonist and her (understandable) mistakes drive the plot.

Vijay does not take the time to explain the much about the complexities of the politics and history of the region, leaving the reader to piece things together along with Shalini. I like that choice; in me it induced some of the humility that Shalini gains during her trip. Reading on a Kindle was great for being able to quickly look up vocabulary from Kashmiri, Hindi, etc.

With thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A grieving daughter, seeking answers about her mother’s death, gets ensconced in politics and a story larger than just her family. Lyrical writing, but the plotting was slow and meandering.

A novel that started out slow for me, but got my attention toward the middle. The story is told by the daughter who spends a great deal of time trying to understand her mother and father. The day a mysterious man from Kashmir shows up at her house, it sets a number of events in motion.

The Far Field is descriptive, secretive, political, and historic novel. The author is skilled at portraying southern India and Kashmir in a way that makes the reader feel they are there with her.

Tl;dr: The Far Field has passages of gorgeous writing but pulls the novel equivalent of a hamstring trying to prove its point about privilege and what it does (nothing good) and how it blinds you.

The Far Field is the recollections of Shalini, a thirty year old privileged woman living in Bangalore who shares what happened to her when, as a twentysomething grieving the death of her mother, she decided to track down a traveling salesman from Kashmir who visited their home (and who her mother was fascinated with) when she was a child/teenager.

As you can imagine, the trip has Shalini realize how different and difficult the lives of others are, while she seeks to find meaning and purpose not just in the actions of her volatile mother, but in her own life. This leads to a series of revelations and actions that don't change her life but do manage to ruin the lives of others.

The writing is gorgeous, although Ms. Vijay tries way too hard to create a poetic and meaningful ending and winds up overgilding the lily.

The Far Field is at its best when describing the beauty of and loss in Kashmir, and how all the conflict that's happened has largely been glossed over by the world. The sections that focus on Shalini's time there are the best in the book.

Shalini's mother is, of course, a large presence in the book, and The Far Field does a good job of showing how difficult it was for her, constrained by society and broken by her (largely untreated) mental problems, as well as how Shalini coped (or tried to) with her mother's swings from joy to despair and beyond, while assuming that somehow, the journey she takes will help her understand.

In the end, she breaks herself and, more importantly, others as well. The Far Field is about privilege and the consequences of it, but spends so much time belaboring this that what could have been a spare, haunting novel is a winding road that loops back over and over again.

Sometimes less is more.

A truly magnificent story. The Far Field was a welcome respite from the thrillers being churned out and took me through all of the emotions. Absolutely worth the read!

4.5 stars

A couple of weeks ago, I started seeing this book everywhere - Instagram, Facebook, you name it... When I learnt it was set in India, I knew I had to read it.

The story follows a 24 year old Shalini, a privileged young woman from Bangalore, who, after her mother's death, decides to set off on a journey to find her mother's long lost friend from Kashmir. The narrative switches between the presence and Shalini's childhood memories of her eccentric mother. Finding a pleasure in mocking and ridiculing people, Shalini's mother was not an easy person to be around. While the scenes of Shalini's mother's outbursts seemed entertaining to me at first, my heart soon started to ache for the poor child. 

It is not easy to describe this book as I feel that my summary above doesn't do it justice. There are a few different layers to the story. The Far Field is a story of a young woman's journey to self-discovery, a complicated heart-wrenching mother-daughter relationship, and ultimately, forgiveness. It also offers a sensitive insight into the conflict in Kashmir.

I found the writing extremely powerful. It transferred me back to India within the first few chapters. Even if the build up can seem a bit slow, the prose is beautiful, compensating for the slower pace. The only thing that frustrated me at times was Shalini's behaviour. I thought she came across too naïve for her age, but thankfully, the story was compelling enough for me to forgive her.

Many thanks to Grove Atlantic for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A special debut book examining a young women’s relationship with her mother as she comes to term with her mother’s traumatic and sudden death. The Far Far Field is a fresh take on the coming of age story, taking a hard look at discovering the type of person you are, owning your identity, and living with/accepting the choices you make in life. It’s a long read, well worth it but best read in several sittings.

Shalini is at loose ends following the death of her mother, Nothing is working right. It's been more than two years since her loss and she cannot manage her grief and fury. .Shalini and her mother were close--surprising since her mother was one of those acidic, funny, cruel women who would be a nightmare to have as a parent. In thinking about her mother's life, she recalls the few times she saw her mother happy and bright, those times when a Kashmiri man selling clothing would come by their house in Bangalore. He only came every few months, but then her mother became different somehow. Shalini has not seen him for years, but she decides that she must travel to Kashmir to find him, a risky journey since she does not know where he lives and the region is wracked by war.

Now wanting to ruin anything for the reader, this is an engaging novel that explores new terrain in its setting and political background. The characters are prickly and believable, scary, compromised.."The Far Field" is not a light read, but it's a good one.

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

The Far Field is a fictitious story of a girl who goes searching for answers to the questions she has about the enigmatic life of her mother but ends up becoming deeply embroiled in the political turmoil of Kashmir.

Madhuri Vijay's prose is hauntingly beautiful. It took me quite a few pages to realize that the book was not actually a work of fiction because the characters seem so real straight off the bat. Throughout the book, Vijay's attention to detail has a way of transporting you to their world; it's almost as if you exist in the same space as these characters. Each one has a complex, intricate personality to offer and despite being highly character-driven, the book manages to balance out the emotions with action.

As someone always familiar with the conflict in Kashmir, this story was all the more moving. A lot of the opinions expressed by the characters resonated with me and quite a few situations in the book distressed me to no end as if I had to experience them myself. That made reading this story an even more powerful experience.

Highly recommended.

PS. My favourite part was when a character who is fluent in multiple languages (Urdu, Kashmiri & English) is asked why he learnt this many, he states that different languages are good for different purposes and goes on to say that poetry is always more beautiful in Urdu and Kashmiri was made for stories. I've been saying this for years about Urdu and it made me fall even more in love with this story!

Rating: 4/5 stars

An emotional and moving story about humanity and political conflict. It gave me a good perspective about the culture in India. It is a country that I have never read too many stories of so it was nice getting that new perspective and reading a story in a setting that was completely unfamiliar to me.

I loved the character arcs, although I believed Shalini lacked substance where all the other characters were complex and interesting. I loved the Mom the most, but Zoya also holds a place in my heart.

The plot was slow moving, and mostly character driven. I thought a little more action and suspense could have enriched the story a lot more.

Overall, an enjoyable read. Rating: 3.5