I had a really hard time staying engaged with this collection of short stories. I found myself just skimming through after the first couple of stories. Maybe it's me and I just don't understand this style of writing, I just found the stories confusing with no obvious plots. I didn't understand what was going on half the time and there were all these sexual scenarios thrown in for no reason that I could see. I'm no prude but they just didn't seem to lend to the stories much. The stories themselves seemed to just jump around all over the place and sometimes in different voices and I had no idea what was going on or whose perspective I was reading from. They had no clear beginning, middle, or end. It felt like walking into the middle of a conversation, not really knowing much, but then having it abruptly end, but you don't care because you had no idea what was going on anyways. I'm sure there are people out there that will absolutely love this book, but it was not for me.
Thank you to Algonquin Books and Netgalley for the ARC of this book.

Shruti Swamy's lyrical prose is gorgeous, but like many short story collections, I felt that the author's writing style did not suit her stories equally--some were compelling and rich and wonderful; others were confusingly abstract and difficult to follow.

Standout stories (to me) were "My Brother at the Station," "The Siege," "Earthly Pleasures," and "Night Garden."

Sadly i didn't really get into a lot of these stories. Just wasn't for me. Lost my interest or couldn't keep it.

A woman tends to her daughter and waits for fire to reach the house. Another woman watches a dog and a cobra face off. Yet another woman searches for Krishna, here is in the guise of an actor. A collection of beautiful stories concerning relationships, the heart, and how we live each day.

There are some tough themes in this collection and an overall sense of pain and hopelessness. I found it hard to get into these stories although the imagery and sense of place are strong.

I’m judging a 2020 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.
“Sudha took her husband’s hand. It was thin and dry and warm. She had memorized the lines in his palm, cut deep as though in wood. She listened to the sound of his breathing. Once she had lain on top of him, very still, and kept her face close to his so that she could taste the air that came from his mouth, tinged with clove from the kernels he sucked for better digestion.”
This prose is lyrical and captivating. Look forward to reading further.

A lovely collection of short stories. I am not usually a short story person, I like my stories longer. However I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this book. The stories were confusing at times and sometimes hard to get into but it was a nice read.

This novel consists of several short stories. As I find with most short story collections, some were more intriguing than others. However, in general I found that this book was just 'not for me'. Most of the stories I just did not understand. Throw in some explicit and unnecessary sexual encounters.... BAM you have a thought provoking, emotional story.... nope sorry, your magic did not work for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Algonquin Books for the opportunity to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

It is a hard thing to write a review of a book that was not a fit for you but you feel deserves merit. People talk about a book being either character or plot driven. In the case of A House Is A Body I can’t describe it as either. My impression was of streaming poetically written pictures that will perhaps appeal to lovers of poetry. My expectation and desire to read these stories was based on a desire to escape into a different culture given the ethnicity of the author. That expectation was not rewarded in this case but the author’s skill with language should not be dismissed.

This book was a series of short stories taking place in India. Possibly don’t understand Indian literature but I found the stories tedious to read.

Lovely collection of short stories but not sure it’s the type of thing our readership picks up. We don’t excel with short story collections.