We were unable to assign this book for featured review but we did include it in our Publishing This Week lineup on BookBrowse and in our monthly notable books coming soon lists which go to librarians.

Published by Algonquin Books on September 7, 2021

Like many stories set in India, The Archer is about contrasts of privilege. While the story involves (and is promoted as) a woman’s quest to improve herself as a dancer, it is more fundamentally a relationship drama involving a wealthy man who weds a poor woman over his family’s objections and imposes his family’s expectations upon her. That drama is set against the backdrop of Bombay in the 1960s and the social restraints imposed by Indian society upon women.

Vidya was raised in a chaali, a communal, gossipy group “where children were largely left to their own devices, with a distracted eye of some mother glancing out from time to time over each child, and come suppertime a child could be fed in any house it visited.” Vidya’s father traveled for work and was usually absent from the home. Her mother died (by means that Vidya’s memory has suppressed) when Vidya was young, leaving Vidya to be raised by her father and giving her the duty of raising a younger brother who becomes entirely dependent upon her. As a boy, Vidya’s brother is the family’s more important child. Vidya’s assigned role — a role she eventually rejects — is to take care of the home and to assure that her brother’s and father’s needs are met.

As a girl, Vidya wanted to play the tabla, a drum that only boys are allowed to play. Her mother told her, perhaps prophetically, that if she asks why she isn’t allowed to do something, she will always be unhappy. Vidya’s grandmother tells her that “sometimes god puts a soul in the wrong body” and that Vidya should have been a boy with her “restless” and “unsatisfied” nature. Boys can find an outlet for their restlessness but, as a girl, Vidya is fated to get married and live in her mother-in-law’s home. Vidya tells her grandmother that she will never get married. Fate, circumstances, social pressure, and even love all make it difficult for Vidya to keep that promise.

Vidya’s true calling, she believes, is to be a dancer. Much of the novel explores Vidya’s love of dance, her perseverance in dance lessons despite a strictness from her instructors that almost borders on cruelty, her relationships with those instructors and her occasional performances.

In her first-person narrative, Vidya also describes her decision to leave home and to attend college. Vidya’s only true friend is a student named Radha, another woman whose soul is in the wrong body. Vidya’s relationship with Radha illustrates another taboo that limits the choices both women are allowed to make.

Vidya narrates her eventual marriage to Rustom, a young man who comes from a prosperous family and who seems attentive and kind, a man whose values appear to be more western than traditional Indian in his regard of women as (almost) equal partners in a marriage. Since Rustom’s family holds Vidya in little regard (she doesn’t meet their standard for social class, refined manners, or skin color), their only real expectation is that she produce a male child that they fully intend to raise.

Like many stories from India, The Archer is notable for its depiction of the clash between ancient traditions that favor the upper classes and encroaching western notions of fairness and equality. Vidya’s defiance of her husband, father, in-laws, teachers, and society is commendable, but her defiance is at war with her feelings of inadequacy, promoted by a culture that views her gender and dark skin as liabilities. Only when she becomes lost in a dance does she feel at peace with her nature, allowing her to “move deeper into my body as the world became sharper.”

Vidya lives her life in conflict, proving the truth of her grandmother’s observation that she cannot reconcile herself. Vidya wants one thing and settles for another. Her plans to become an engineer, to never marry, and to always dance are at odds with the life she must live. At the end of the novel, Vidya makes a choice between dependence and independence. The choice is not one that will make her happy, at least not in the moment, but there may be no choice that will produce immediate happiness. She instead bases the choice on how she believes her conflicts can be reconciled for the best, and maybe that’s the long distance route to a happy life.

The novel’s title comes from a character in an epic story from ancient India, a gifted archer who sliced off his thumb so that he would never be better than his teacher. When a dance teacher explains the story’s relationship to dharma, Vidya doesn’t understand it. By the novel’s end, she understands how to relate the story to her own life. I can’t say I ever quite got the point, but Vidya is clearly smarter than I am.

The plot may seem be familiar to readers who have encountered similar stories. While the novel does not stand apart from other entries in the field, I appreciated Shruti Swamy’s unwillingness to force a happy ending upon Vidya. In the current century, Vidya might have more choices. In her time and place and given her circumstances, she needs to make choices that work for her, even if no choices will allow her to put her soul into a body that will allow her to live as she pleases.

Swamy’s prose captures the rhythms of dance, sometimes spinning, speeding up and slowing down, progressing and retreating. She is an observant writer, and while I could have done with fewer observations of red or yellow or blue saris, she captures the atmosphere of a Bombay that is divided between the cultured silence of the privileged and the chattering voices of the chaali. The Archer should capture the attention and perhaps the hearts of readers who appreciate honest stories of women who find a path to some form of independence, even if the best available path is not the one that fulfills their dreams.

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When Vidya glimpses a group of girls learning kathak, an Indian dance, she is instantly drawn to the art form. Given permission to begin taking lessons, she struggles with the discipline and focus the dance requires. The book continues following Vidya through her life, and she goes to college, moves on to a more advanced teacher, and finally marries.

I felt like this book was all over the place. It was written in a lyrical style, that does not really appeal to me. I am sure that many will love this book, it just wasn't for me.

This book about a young woman's love of kathak dance is lush with description about the interior life of the main character as she forms her own personhood. She pursues a unique type of indian dance which was interesting to learn about. But in the final analysis, the main character seemed to be all over the place and even by the end of the novel, I was not sure who she was.

Poetic. Solitary. Universal. A tale of restless passion and rhythmic persistence to experience the excellence of being oneself through a performing art that transports through life.

Vidya, the protagonist of The Archer, wants to be perfect. Whether this desire of hers stemmed from the patriarchial, gender-conforming norms that she was repeatedly educated about while growing up in an Indian family where poverty limited everything, or whether this want of hers was purely a recitation of what she was truly passionate about: kathak, an ancient dance form, is a wonder that doesn’t really hold value. Because Vidya understood perfection to be the key to independence; freedom from the familial expectations, the gendered life—freedom to perform a dance that is infused with story-telling.

Like kathak, that is both a roar and a calm, Vidya found herself to be torn between the wildness of taking up societal responsibilities without desiring any of it, and the tranquillity of finding a peace that only follows what the heart aspires the most. Through the years, her stubbornness drives her towards a rhythm that rushes through facets that are similar yet conjectured to be different: queerness and love, duty and devotion, life and struggle. Her journey is far from what the world wants it to be, linear, expected, assigned. It’s actually synonymous to a katha—the Sanskrit word for story—as a long-form narrative so complex that only a dance like kathak, only a writing so coherent, can help unfold.

The author’s unique prose, the very same that won my heart in A House is a Body , precisely recounts the occurrences and hazily portrays the inner thoughts, much like the turns in kathak where the watcher awes at the dancer’s posture, balance, the mere ability to not fall away; while the dancer sees a flurry of surroundings, blurriness covering their eyes. The run-on sentences were far from overwhelming, they were coordinating with the various stages of Vidya’s life like the sound of ghungroos, tiny bells tied on a traditional anklet, matching the beats of a tabla, the drum that guides a performance through its music. Set in 1960s-70s Bombay, the backdrop of a city that truly builds dreams is wonderfully painted along the infinite sea that opens a metaphorical gateway to hope, to escape, to find oneself.

Tales within a tale heightens the impressiveness. Whether it’s the story of Eklavya, the archer from Mahabharata who was asked to give up his right thumb as a display of devotion to his teacher—the guru of royal children, the guru who had rejected Eklavya despite his excellent archery skills for he couldn’t afford to let anyone surpass the skills of his royal students. It’s this tale that lends the novel, The Archer, its title. Or the story of Dhritrashtra as the blind king whose wife willingly took blindness by wearing a blindfold until her death. This peregrination through girlhood, through a transformation to express, through the universal need for individuality, is further lined with mythical undertones that are subtly desiring attention.

Overall, The Archer brilliantly and unabashedly places art at the highest point of passion while building a raw, mesmerising, and honest coming-of-age tale through a poetic prose that comments on societal bindings, pure independence, unapologetic persistence.

The Archer by Shruti Swami is a lyrically written novel about a rebellious young woman who breaks from traditional expectations in the 1960s-70s in India to pursue Kathak dancing. We first meet Vidya as a child, her mother is aloof and taken from her at an early age. She ends up taking care of her younger brother and household duties. Despite these responsibilities, Vidya begins learning independence and takes advantage of opportunities including higher education and Kathak dancing. The tone shift and skips in time made it a little hard to follow, but I was invested in Vidya’s story.

I really enjoyed Vidya’s journey and her rebellious streak and devotion to Kathak. What I found especially fascinating was the the social commentary that was peppered in, from the traditional expectations for women and treatment due to class differences and colorism. It was interesting to see how these elements effected the course of her life and isolation she felt. I listened to the audiobook which was masterfully narrated by Sneha Mathan.

Thank you Algonquin Books and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

I was not able to get to this book due to other commitments. My sincere apologies. I may read it when things settle down a bit.

I enjoyed Swamy’s debut story collection so I was excited to read her first novel. Unfortunately, it fell a bit flat for me. Unlike a lot of other reviewers, I actually really enjoyed the tone of the first part, describing her childhood a bit at a distance. However, once the voice changed, I lost interest in the story. Vidaya’s character felt very one-dimensional and I was frustrated with her choices, which didn’t seem to have reason behind them. The jumps in time and place were hard to follow and the things that were omitted in between seemed crucial to the story.

That said, there are places where Swamy’s writing shines and I’m eager to see her write more like this. In particular, the descriptions of Vidaya’s dance were beautifully done. I wish the rest of the novel could have been as focused as those moments.

3.5 stars

Lyrical and lulling, this novel was an entrancing story of one woman's love of dance in 1960-1970s Bombay.

Plot/Pacing: ★★★★
Narrative style: ★★ (did not work for me)
Main character: ★★★★
Enjoyment: ★★★

I absolutely adored Shruti Swamy's A House is a Body short story collection. It was out-of-this-world mesmerizing and filled with stories that seared your soul. Because of that collection, I was thrilled to pick up a copy of her newest novel.

Vidya is a girl growing up in 1960s Bombay. Raised within the traditional values of her culture and the world's views on womanhood, Vidya does not know how to fit in as a girl. She's hyperaware of her physical self and soul in her surroundings. But then everything changes when she begins to dance.

As she falls further into the dancing world of Kathak, a style of dance known for its precision, Vidya begins to make order of her life. Dance becomes her means of ordering herself and her place within time and space. The years flow. The dance remains.

This book calls itself "deeply sensual," and I strongly agree. Everything emotional and sensory is deeply feel through the pages, and there is a startling intimacy in the reader's connection to Vidya as she grows into womanhood and reckons with her life and the limitations of her gender.

The Archer is memorable and lyrical, but I do have to admit that I loved it slightly less than Swamy's short story collection. I had a heck of a time getting into the narrative style of this one. The character's narration of her own thoughts and life's journey was intentionally distanced and meant to highlight her internal journey toward herself, yes, but it did make for a very difficult reading experience.

Recommended for fans of the author's previous collection and for those who enjoy non-traditional narration.

Thank you to the publisher for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the free ARC.

Shruti Swamy's prose is lush, lyrical, and dreamy even when describing ordinary events--cutting vegetables, young Vidya caring for her baby brother, her deep longing for her absent mother, and her complicated relationships with members of her extended family. Throughout the book, Vidya grows and changes so authentically. Even as an outsider to her culture, I was able to empathize with her struggles and concerns.

I watched some videos of Kathak dance while reading this book. It is both beautiful and mysterious and conveyed so much emotion. It helped me understand what Vidya describes in the book about her endless hours of practice. I would highly recommend you do this in order to understand this method of dance better.

3.5. The dream-like writing didn't always work for me, especially with the abrupt change in POV, but it's a beautiful book that outlines the struggle of breaking away from societal molds. The first part of the book was tough to follow, but the last part was the part I connected with the most, probably because the plot was the most tangible.

This is quite a difficult book to review! At first, I did not connect with the main character or her story - but that changed with the abrupt change in writing style (from a distant third person to first person) after the first section. Throughout, the writing style remained dream-like. At times I felt like I was twirling with Vidya as she was dancing, unable to grasp what was happening outside of our little world. Sometimes the narrative wandered too much, but that may be my preference for more plot. In that vein, the parts I enjoyed the most were those with more plot - Vidya's experiences at college and in her marriage, constantly coming up against sexist and patriarchal social norms. Ultimately, this book was much more depressing than I anticipated, but depressing books are right up my alley, so I liked it. I wish there had been a bit more context of time and place - there were very few moments where I realized I was reading a historical fiction novel.

“No one understands the story of Eklavya….by submitting to the demand of his teacher, by cutting off his thumb, he becomes the arrow, the bow. The intensity of his desire and his devotion sharpens him into a weapon: an instrument”
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The first time I saw a Kathak performance, I’d met my Mum for a holiday and we found ourselves sitting in an auditorium, out of the cold and wet, witnessing a masterclass of this classical Indian dance form. It is etched indelibly on my mind as a meeting of style, story and syncopation. Kathak melds a spoken rhythm, the Bols, with Taal, a rhythmic circle of drum and dancer, punctuated by the sound of the ghunghroo, the rows of bells worn around the dancers’ ankles


Set in Mumbai in the 1960’s and 1970’s, The Archer is the story of Vidya. Her first memory is of her mother, a distant figure that takes Vidya with her younger brother to sit outside the music studios whilst she practises singing. There is a sense that she is frustrated by domesticity and longs for a life filled with poetry and music. Early on, she places Vidya’s younger brother in her care, but conversely also supports her desire to learn to dance


As Vidya grows up, this sense of duality, the tension between her artistic desires and her domestic duties, permeates everything that she does. It impacts on her choice of college, her relationships and her family. Is there any way to satisfy both your responsibility to your gift and the needs of other people, especially if you happen to be a woman?


As you can probably tell, I loved this book. There was a languid sensuality to the writing that made Mumbai a multi-sensory, almost overpowering, experience; the touch of a finely woven blue sari, the taste of squeezed bitter melon juice, the shouts from a dusty game of cricket in the courtyard and the sight of the sun going down over Malabar Hill. If you also have a love of dance as both an art and a discipline, then do add this to your TBR
Huge thanks to the publisher for my gifted ecopy and for including me on this blog tour

Taking place in 1970s Bombay, this is an intricately told story of a young woman connected to dance. She practices Kathak, a classical dance form that requires hours of training and practice. I was fascinated to see her grapple with her dreams of pursuing a career in dance while balancing societal expectations and pressures. Vidya’s journey is rooted to her relationship with her mother, and I found this storyline to be the most interesting!
Pick this one up if you’re a literary fiction fan.

Thank you so much @algonquinbooks for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

{3.5 stars}

The Archer is a story of finding yourself and being authentic to who you are and what you want even when society and everyone around you are pressing for something different. Set in Bombay in the 1960s and 70s, Vidya is a child full of fantasy caught up in the dream of becoming a dancer. Her childhood is fraught with pain due to her missing mother and overbearing traditional father.

We see her fight as she ages to live the life she wants and be the dancer she wants to be. Even after she gets her wish to learn dance, she pushes for more to break with tradition and move the way she wants. We see over and over that she is pressed back into the mold that society wants for her.

I really felt for Vidya as she struggled to be herself, to love who she wanted to love, to pursue her passion. The Archer is a very atmospheric read with beautifully written passages about fulfillment and authenticity of spirit.

Thanks to Algonquin Books for a copy of this novel. All opinions are my own.

This book was so educational for me, I got to learn about the culture in those times, the dancing the clothing, family dynamics, it was so well written. At times it was hard to keep up, the character was a little all over the place, I know the author was trying to move it along, but the way she did it was rather confusing. Vidya is so ambitious, and so smart but then not at the same time, she comes off as ungrateful in the book, and not willing to make sacrifices as she gets older. I found it hard to like her when she got older in the book, lol. But other than the fact that the book dragged a little, this author has a way with words, its great, I will read more of her books for sure.

Thanks Netgalley and Algonquin for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

This book is a vivid portrayal of what life was like for a female growing up in Bombay in the 1960s and 1970s. The expectations basically took away life choices. The protagonist, Vidya, doesn't want to be confined to her culture's traditions, but also doesn't want to be an outcast. How can she find and live her dreams and find her true self? Shruti Swamy's writing will draw you in like a slow dance.

Vidya is a young girl living in Bombay whose heart longs to dance. Left by her mother, she must serve her father and brother, but Kathak, the traditional dance of India, gives her a sense of joy and expression.

As a bright college student studying engineering, she experiences prejudices due to her gender, skin color, and social class. Vidya struggles with the expected norms of love and marriage, as well as child-rearing. So what is holding her back from giving herself over to her art completely: her painful past, societal biases, or her own body? Written in beautiful, expressive prose, 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫 is an intimate coming-of-age story with the longing to open oneself.

Thank you to @algonquinbooks for these gifted copies.
🎧 And thank you to @librofm for the gifted audiobook - the narration is fantastic.

"Sometimes god puts a soul in the wrong body. You should have been a boy with your nature."

Vidya, as a child served her family. She carried around a huge amount of responsibility and expectations on her shoulders. One day she noticed a class of dancers studying the Kathak, a precise, dazzling form of dance that requires the utmost discipline and focus. Upon mentioning the dancers to her mother, she learned that she was named after a dancer and is told she may take dance lessons. Her mother understands her drive as she too had dreams and hopes for her life as a young girl. After her mother left, Vidya took care of her younger brother and made meals, but never lost her desire to dance. Dance soon became her sole focus. Her father had other plans for her but from a young age, Vidya was restless, wanting more than what was expected of her. Her grandmother saw this with her own knowing eyes.

"You are restless, you are unsatisfied. You cannot reconcile yourself. A boy could find an outlet for all his restlessness. Not you."

But she did find an outlet in dance. Kathak became a huge part of her life even when she went away to college. It was/is her purpose. Dance allowed her to be separate from all other aspects of her life. She continued to dance as she fell in love with her best friend, studied, and realized that she was unaware of so many things in her life. Awareness, harsh truths, family, dance, hope, friends, and college course work combine for her while she makes her way.

Even when she married, she continued to dance and reconcile how to be a wife and a dancer. Is it possible? Could she create her own legacy? Will she be like her mother? What will the future hold?

This book touches on a lot of themes such as gender roles, expectations, sexuality, duty, feminism, colorism, mental health, and purpose to name a few. The book is about Vidya's journey from childhood to adulthood in Bombay. We watch as she grows, experiences, lives, and struggles. Her mother is gone for most of her life and as she finds purpose, she thinks of her mother often.

This was a book I needed to sit with. Initially I gave it 3 stars but bumped my rating up upon reflecting on the book. Parts of this book felt a little choppy as the story progresses from her childhood to college to married life. I fell this book could have benefited from a chapter header here and there to make for smoother transitions. But life isn't smooth so this may also have been done on purpose. What helped me with the transitions was thinking about each section as a short story about Vidya's life.

This book is about one woman's journey. Again, I found that with sitting with this book and reflecting on the story, that I enjoyed it more than I initially thought. I enjoyed the insight into her drive and search for purpose. How she struggled with several things in her life such as being her own person vs. the expectations that society and her father placed upon her. What will happen when expectations and drive collide?

The writing style is unique thus creating its own pace which meanders through one woman's life. The writing ebbs and flows. It is a dance in and of itself.

This is a unique and original novel set in Bombay. I found it to be thought provoking and mesmerizing. There is a lot of food for thought here and would make a good book club selection.

Insightful, original, and thought provoking. Swamy’s words dance across the page.

Brilliant. Shruti Swarmy's debut novel, The Archer, is an exquisite coming of age story of a young girl, Vidya, growing up in the 1960s and 1970s in India.This story dives into motherhood, womanhood, class and colorism to deliver a deeply moving portrait of young women who tries to dance free of society's expectations and obligations, in order to see and be her truest self. Swarmy's writing is evocative, elegant and mesmerizing; she is truly a talented writer.