''A writer of great subtlety and intelligence, who understands that emotional power comes from the steady accretion of detail'' Kamila Shamsie, Guardian

''She writes elegantly and intelligently whatever the subject matter'' Francesca Angelini, The Times

''A compulsively readable novel'' Manil Suri, New York Times

''A horse was in flames. It roamed beneath the ocean breathing fire . . . ''

Love, loss and longing

Now at university in England, Sara looks back on her hometown in southern India. “This is the west,” where almost everything is within reach, but where she comes from, people have always known that “ordinary days can explode without warning, leaving us broken, collecting the scattered pieces of our lives”. Anuradha Roy’s carefully crafted fifth novel shows how, in such a place, things can change in extraordinary ways, even if new beginnings and worlds are hard to come by.

Elango is a Hindu potter. His dream is to create a terracotta horse; his crime is falling in love with a Muslim girl, Zohra, and wanting the “unbridgeable crevasse” between them to close (“the space between the two was a charnel house of burnt and bloodied human flesh, a giant crack through the earth that was like an open mouth waiting to swallow him”). What follows is a story of love, loss and longing; tradition, creation and destruction; and the invisible lines that divide humans, animals and the divine.

The art of pottery is one of the most ancient human inventions, handed down from generation to generation. The Earthspinner also advocates for a gift: a harmonious sense of humanity. When forged with fire, both stand the test of time.

Sana Goyal

The Guardian 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2022/may/18/this-months-best-paperbacks-maggie-shipstead-shon-faye-and-more