Thank you NetGalley and Algonquin for ARCs in exchange for an honest review.

<i> A House Is a Body <i/> is a dazzling debut of short stories from Shruti Swamy. This short story collection takes locations ranging from India to the United States and the descriptions brought me right into each story.

Each of these stories were previously published in journals and the combination of stories is perfect. Each are follow different characters, but also seem to be connected by small parts of each story if only from the use of descriptive language.

If you enjoy short stories, I highly recommend this collection to you. Great debut, Shruti!

I usually love reading short stories, and I mostly enjoyed this collection. Each story is unique in its time, place, and space, but all have drawn me in with the beautiful, melancholy writing. However, I felt like a lot of the stories were almost unnecessarily dramatic, or maybe unfinished? I wanted to like the collection a lot more than I did.

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

I enjoyed this short story collection enough. It deals with themes of family, parenting, and love.

As is always the case, some stories worked better for me than others. It's a common problem I have with short story collections - sometimes they're impactful and important, but other times it just feels like there wasn't enough space to really create a cohesive plot.

I appreciated how the author implanted pieces of Indian culture into her stories. I loved that particular element of the book overall.

A house is a body is a short stories collection and it's only thing I wanted to know and the stories. The main themes are mental health, family and loss; and overall it's just a really solid book there was some parts of the stories that felt really weak and I don't know if that's just me being new to this fiction short stories but I did enjoy it enough I do plan on looking into more of the author writing.
This was a really dark book, if you need warnings I would look into warnings before reading this book there is a lot going on in each short story but I don't feel like it was over the top or pushy or being dramatic just to be dramatic I do feel like the things that the author wrote about did and do affect the characters and was needed to be part of the stories for the characters.

Like any short story collection there was stories in here that I did like more than other stories. One of the shorts right I did enjoy a nice one is it one called Linus it's about woman who is dealing with depression after her husband my forever second husband dies and I just like how the author wrote it felt real. I also enjoyed night garden and the laughter artist were to others I really enjoyed.


I do feel that this book will be talked about and I do feel that it is one that should be talked about I did find that it went by really fast before I could take everything in it was done with and that was the end of the book I just feel like maybe I need to read it again to get even more from these pages.

I rarely read short stories and this collection is rapidly changing my mind. I would regret missing this opportunity as Swamy’s storytelling is positively riveting. In addition to spanning continents (India and North America) she spans genres (fiction to fantasy, trust me it works!) There is no emotion overlooked and likewise, no wasted words. A perfect nightstand book, read one story each evening; guaranteed to have interesting dreams. It must be said, this cover is as gorgeous 🤩 as her writing.

If you are familiar with the work of Shruti Swamy, it is likely you have seen her stories in Kenyon Review Online, the Boston Review, the Paris Review, and a number of other publications (listed in the Acknowledgements of A House is a Body). This collection contains those stories and others, which work together to immerse and consume the reader in many delightful, moving, grotesque, thoughtful, and real ways.

Blindness
The first story is aptly placed; it contains memory sequences, love anxiety, inner demons, and an overall existentialist theme found in the stories that follow. This introduction to Shruti Swamy’s writing showcases her ability to drift the narrative into memory and back to reality in a clear yet mesmerizing manner.

Mourners
This story does not have the same dreamy aura as “Blindness”, but its details are just as thoughtful and affecting. The three main characters are living under one roof and are mourning the same person; their lives sort of unravel as they try to become whole.

I feel it important to note that one of the characters in this story uses the term “Irish twins”, which is a historically derogatory term.

My Brother at the Station
The protagonist in this story sees her brother from afar one day, after many years of not speaking. She follows him throughout the day, reflecting on their childhood, her own soon-to-be-born child, and the many wants life leaves you with.

The Siege
The most fantasy-like story in this collection, “The Siege” tells of evil acts, rebellions, and two Queens—one in power and one captured as a hostage. The title not only describes the state of the city, but of the symbolic inner state of the narrating Queen.

Earthly Pleasures
Krishna is introduced in this story, and is manifested as a celebrity with whom the protagonist starts something of an affair. Art, possession, fantasy are themes of this story, and again that sort of dreamy atmosphere Shruti Swamy writes so well is present throughout the narrative.

Wedding Season
Two lovers take a miniature tour of some of India’s cities, and their story culminates at a wedding in which Tejas is met with a barrage of questions about when she herself will get married, as her girlfriend Al sits at the very same table. Even with the sweetness and devotion Tejas and Al have for each other, the whole story feels a little hesitant, as though both women are always anticipating the verbalization of these expectations. Their love story may be one of the most honest across the characters in this collection.

The Neighbors
Belonging, willful ignorance, and a slight desperation are presented in this story, where our main character and her daughter meet the new neighbors. It’s quite a straightforward narrative, which actually leaves the reader with a few frustrating questions about the neighbor’s intentions; the reader is left to draw their own conclusions.

A Simple Composition
Grooming and statutory rape are unfortunately the setup for the life of the narrator and main character in this story, who searches for identifiable happiness in her adult life. She doesn’t quite live for herself, and there is a sense she feels obligated to be satisfied with her life.

The Laughter Artist
This story feels like an interpretation of the expectation of girls and women to be nice and pleasant all the time. Our main character is a certified Laughter Artist, and she talks about how her different laughs are used in different situations, outside of her work on studio audience tracks and movie background noise. She explains how her true laugh is something kept hidden, her true joy kept apart from the situations inflicted by external forces. “The Laughter Artist” is one of the more surreal stories in this collection, but also one of the most impactful.

Didi
Parental sadness, grief, and ultimately recovery are the main themes of this story; many things go unsaid but there is a hint that verbalization helps with inner acceptance and moving on.

A House Is A Body
The title story is aptly named, as its contents are remembered, revisited, and as memories rush forth around the material possessions and structure. A wildfire makes its way towards the house in the story, and a mother struggles to detach herself and her daughter from all that is contained in the rooms and her memories.

Night Garden
An unexpected tale, of a dog and cobra facing off in a garden. The dog’s owner, Viji, stands just inside the house, anticipating the worst while reflecting on the power, grace, and symbolism of each animal. The story ends positively with an air of contemplation.

A House is a Body is a masterful short story collection, because while each story stands on its own, they all feel as though they belong together. The themes of each story and the differing degrees of existential crises each character experiences deepen each scenario, while contributing to the timelessness of each narrative. This collection consumes with commentary on human, individualistic, and even animal nature; it is easy to forget anything else exists beyond these pages, regardless of how many human imperfections, horrors, and instincts are presented.

n the title story of Shruti Swamy's debut, a mother watches as a California wildfire encroaches on her home and muses, "A house is a body, a body houses the soul." This is one of the rare times that the author makes the connection of the physical to the spiritual so explicit, but it's a pervasive presence throughout her work.

Whether it's a closeted lesbian couple attending a cousin's wedding or a student who is studying the art of laughter, in the dozen brief but impactful short stories, every moment and every observation has weight, giving a vibrant sense of atmosphere and emotion using an economy of words.

The settings range from the humid rooftops of India and a cool university town in Germany to the cookie-cutter suburbs of the U.S., but always it's the unflappable characters who anchor the action. Swamy writes each protagonist (all female except for one) as tackling life with a brisk matter-of-factness that rarely allows for the luxury of slipping into the sentimental, despite an intense yearning for more. Instead, the stories celebrate the sensual – the sluicing of ocean water over one swimmer's body – and the frankly sexual interactions detailed without flowery romanticism or moral judgment.

With the exception of one detour into the fantastical when an artist begins a relationship with the god Krishna, the characters are unabashedly mammalian in their needs and experiences. Death makes an appearance almost as much as sex or pregnancy does. What appears to be missing are the motivations, but all the clues are given in the actions.

Swamy is deliberate in her use of words and scenes to capture the essence of anger, mourning, frustration, and anticipation. The tales sometimes end abruptly, on the precipice of revealing all. It's a testament to Swamy's writing that the reader knows what comes next, whether it's hope or bleakness. No matter what, one is left with the sense of having partaken of a precious morsel of life.

This is an incredible, urgent book of short stories, each of them packing a singular punch. I read these all, often pausing for days between stories, sitting with them in my mind, and thinking about how Swamy expertly executed craft to get her characters and their motivations to sit with me much much longer than with most books I read.

Book Review: A House Is a Body by Shruti Swamy


Book Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
What do the dead really look like? Every month the moon grows bigger and bigger, and yesterday I saw it hanging ripe and hard as an apple in the black. I cannot imagine.
A House Is a Body is Shruti Swamy's debut collection of short stories, and oh boy does it come at you full force. Swamy has woven together stories of grief, motherhood, melancholy, love, lust, and a whole myriad of other deeply human experiences. Each story is steeped in the sense of trying to understand our motivations at their core.

Initial Thoughts
Honestly, I have nothing but positive things to say about this book. These stories are incandescent, and they leave you with a sense of having read something profound. Swamy's writing is poetic and mesmerizing, and each story draws you in completely, transporting you from the United States to India and back again. This collection is an astonishingly good debut, and quite frankly I can't recommend that you read it enough.


My favorite story, in case you're wondering, was the titular A House Is a Body. In it, a California wildfire is sweeping toward the home of a woman and her daughter. Exhausted and frazzled, the woman tries to balance the things she should save, her child's rising fever, and the ever-tightening constraints of time in a frantic rush of punchy language.

Read if ...
... you appreciate language and the craft of story-telling on any level, to be honest.

Maybe skip if ...
... stories involving sexual assault, grief and loss, or depression are triggering for you.

A House is a Body is a debut short story collection by Shruti Swamy. And what a strong debut it is! These stories are mostly centered around female characters in settings ranging from India to the US. The stand out central commonality between the stories for me was a dreamlike quality. Right now, the one that is standing out in my mind is the titular story, where a young mom is overwhelmed by motherhood and the raging wildfire that is approaching her house.

The stories were all very honest...almost raw with their look at humanity and all that it encompasses: love, loneliness, sadness, sexuality, fear. The author is not at all timid with her writing. It was refreshing to see such a searing look at the lives and minds of female Indian characters. The stories were both realistic and magical, which all played into that aforementioned dreamlike quality.

I highly recommend this collection!

Where do I begin with these stories? I have tried several times to describe how I feel about this book and to be honest I really don’t know what to say, but what I know is that, Swamy, isn’t afraid of experiment. This collection of twelve stories is very unique, some stories had me captivated while others were puzzling. Shifting between continents and cultures, Swamy, did something I don’t see too often, within a few of these stories I felt like she leaving it up to me, the reader, to complete the story and I think that’s where I struggled a bit.

The stories that I enjoyed the most were; My Brother at the Station', 'Wedding Season’, ‘The Neighbors' and 'A House is a Body. These stories were realistic to me, and they made me want more. Be warned there are triggers in this book, such as: sexual assault, rape and some domestic violence.

So overall, I don’t love or hate this book, it's definitely one for acquired taste. Honestly rating this book, I am giving it a 3.5/5 stars, please don’t let that discourage you, her writing is truly something to admire. Thank you, @algonquinbooks for this gifted copy.

When I was first getting serious about improving my craft, I used to read short story collections almost exclusively. Short fiction demands that every. Single. Word. pulls its weight, doing double and sometimes triple duty of revealing plot, emotion, and character in only a few pages.

I hadn't picked up a new collection in a while, figuring I already had my favorites that I'd return to over and over again.

Enter Shruti Swamy's A HOUSE IS A BODY. This debut short story collection is full of characters whose veins stand out on their skin like embroidery. Who sit before a mirror to watch themselves cry because they're curious what it looks like. Whose necks are bruised, fingers calloused, foreheads hot with fevers that blaze like house fires.

I read these stories one at a time at first, right before bed. Then the back half I read all at once, one story bleeding into another, until I hit the last page. If you're having a hard time focusing long enough to finish reading a novel right now, this just might be the book that lifts you out of your reading slump. 🌟

This is such a beautiful book of short stories. I absolutely loved Shruti's characters. Profound and essential. I read this in a day, and underlined so many facets of the stories. Truly, truly brilliant.

I liked this short story collection. I’m not the biggest short story reader, but I enjoyed this. I might reread this again soon.

Thank you Algonquin Books for the free digital copy of A House Is a Body!

The author’s cultural roots shine through in these 12 stories about desire, mortality, and trauma that move between India and America.

I am not an Own Voices reviewer and I appreciated this peek inside the lives of modern Indian women and Hindu myths.

These stories are a mix of sexy, sad, abstract and complex.

If you enjoy feminist short stories, add this to your TBR!

A House is a Body is a debut short story collection by Indian American author Shruti Swamy. The stories cover a range of themes and experiences, such as motherhood, grief, marriage, and depression.

I really enjoyed this collection. The tone overall is a bit melancholic, with an air of quiet desperation. Many of the characters are grappling with their identities and life satisfaction. The stories have a slice-of-life quality that I thought was powerful. The reader is dropped in with these characters for a few pages, and there are no tidy endings because life goes on for them. One of my favorite stories, for example, follows a woman for one night while she stands vigil watching her dog have a stand-off with a cobra in her backyard. The title story is about a mother in suburban California, paralyzed and indecisive at the prospect of evacuating her home for an incoming forest fire.

The writing is beautiful, and it is interesting to infer about a character’s personality and life from just one scenario or a short period of time. I did connect with some of the characters, but it was difficult given the format. The draw was more in the writing, and the windows into different lives and circumstances.

A few stories have whimsical qualities, and the settings move between India and America. This is interesting because it highlights cultural differences and immigrant experiences. There is also quite a bit of LGBT representation, which is nuanced with some interesting cultural context.

To me, this collection is reminiscent of Jhumpa Lahiri’s stories, which are some of my favorites. I recommend this for readers looking for own voices and vignette style stories.

Thank you to Algonquin Books and NetGalley for providing me with a review copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

Brilliant Book! The stories in this book are exceptional, dreamy and will keep your breath bated, especially the last story, Night Garden. I was so anxious while reading it. Couldn't flip the pages fast enough. Love it.

I am generally not a fan of short story collections, and maybe that affected my opinion of the book. Obviously, there are a some stories in this collection which are good and touch your heart. There are others which I didn't understand - not because it had Indian protagonists because I am Indian - it was because of the surreal writing style which isn't usually my jam. All in all, a nice collection of short stories, you will love it if you like surreal writing styles and not-clear-ending stories.

I've heard a lot of good things about these anthologies by Kelly Jensen, but I never took the time to check one out. And I was missing out, because it was such a fun and insightful read.

I say fun read, but parts of this weren't fun to read because they were emotional and sad. I mean, we all have problems with our bodies, right? Lots of these stories were heartbreaking, seeing people be in pain, or having other people not take them seriously. I saw myself in a lot of them. And I saw a lot of struggles that I have no experience with. It was all such a valuable learning experience.

What I liked most is that the essays were short, and they were interspersed with tips and facts about the body. There were some cartoons, too, which was a welcome change from all the writing. I will give y'all a heads up that there are drawings of naked women in here, but it's cartoony. Actually, the illustrations are so nicely done that it was one of my favorite parts of the book - not to sound like a creep, lol. I just liked how it highlighted so many different kinds of female bodies - thin, plus-size, stretch marks, white, black, disabled, trans, and all sorts of different hair types, etc. It was just so awesome to see all of that in a positive manner. The art is really cool!

So I have to give this a thoroughly positive review and recommend it to everybody who has a body, haha. Trigger warnings abound, because this collection covers a vast variety of experiences. Just read with caution, and I think you will enjoy it.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.