Janice Pariat

One of the most acclaimed and revered writers of her generation returns with her most ambitious novel yet—an elegant, multi-layered work, rich in imagination and exquisitely told, that interweaves a quartet of journeys across continents and centuries.As emotionally resonant as Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss, as inspired as Anthony Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land, as inventive as Louisa Hall’s Speak, and as visionary as David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Everything the Light Touches is Janice Pariat’s magnificent epic of travelers, of discovery, of time, of science, of human connection, and of the impermanent nature of the universe and life itself—a bold and brilliant saga that unfolds through the adventures and experiences of four intriguing characters.Shai is a young woman in modern India. Lost and drifting, she travels to her country’s Northeast and rediscovers, through her encounters with indigenous communities, ways of being that realign and renew her.Evelyn is a student of science in Edwardian England. Inspired by Goethe’s botanical writings, she leaves Cambridge on a quest to wander the sacred forests of the Lower Himalayas.Linnaeus, a botanist and taxonomist who famously declared “God creates; Linnaeus organizes,” sets off on an expedition to an unfamiliar world, the far reaches of Lapland in 1732. Goethe is a philosopher, writer, and one of the greatest minds of his age. While traveling through Italy in the 1780s, he formulates his ideas for “The Metamorphosis of Plants,” a little-known, revelatory text that challenges humankind’s propensity to reduce plants—and the world—into immutable parts.Drawn richly from scientific and botanical ideas, Everything the Light Touches is a swirl of ever-expanding themes: the contrasts between modern India and its colonial past, urban and rural life, capitalism and centuries-old traditions of generosity and gratitude, script and “song and stone.” Pulsating at its center is the dichotomy between different ways of seeing, those that fix and categorize and those that free and unify. Pariat questions the imposition of fixity—of our obsession to place permanence on plants, people, stories, knowledge, land—where there is only movement, fluidity, and constant transformation. “To be still,” says a character in the book, “is to be without life.”Everything the Light Touches brings together, with startling and playful novelty, people and places that seem, at first, removed from each other in time and place. Yet as it artfully reveals, all is resonance; all is connection.

'You, though, are as beautiful as light splitting through glass.' Nine characters recall their relationship with a young woman - the same woman - whom they have loved, or who has loved them. We piece her together, much as we do with others in our lives, in incomplete but illuminating slivers. Set in familiar and nameless cities, moving between east and west, The Nine-Chambered Heart is a compendium of shifting perspectives that follows one woman's life, making her dazzlingly real in one moment, and obscuring her in the very next. Janice Pariat's exquisitely written new novel is about the fragile, fragmented nature of identity - how others see us only in bits and pieces, and how sometimes we tend to become what others perceive us to be

Boats on Land is a collection of short stories that offer a new way of looking at the world, and, in particular, India’s little-known northeast. Set in and around Shillong, Cherrapunjee and pockets of Assam, these tales are shaped against a larger historical canvas of the early days of the British Raj, the World Wars, conversions to Christianity, and the missionaries.Spanning a sweep of centuries, from the mid-1800s to the present day, the stories work as a historical, sociological documentation of a place and its people, interweaving the quotidian and the mythic, the mundane and the extraordinary.This is a world in which the everyday is infused with folklore and a deep belief in the supernatural. Here, a girl dreams of being a firebird. An artist watches souls turn into trees. A man shape-shifts into a tiger. Another is bewitched by water fairies. Political struggles and social unrest interweave with fireside tales and age-old superstitions.

Nem was not like his college classmates. Instead of crowding around a TV set, Nem opted for lonely walks where he could indulge his passion for photography, until the night he saw Nicholas, a young professor from London, with another male student. The affair is passionate and brief. When Nicholas returns to London, Nem must move on. He graduates and soon finds success as a critic in New Delhi’s burgeoning art world. Then comes an invitation to speak to artists in London, and the past is suddenly resurrected. As London's cosmopolitan art scene envelops Nem, he is haunted by the possibilities of a life with Nicholas. But Nicholas eludes Nem, avoiding a reunion with his old student, but leaving clues that lead to someone Myra, a woman Nem thought was Nicholas's sister. Brought together by their love for Nicholas, Nem and Myra embark on a surprising friendship.Janice Pariat explores the concept of emotional memory with the inquisitive mind of a scientist and the prowess of a poet. Rich, immersive prose drives a story with international scope, one that seeks answers to the age-old mystery of what binds us to others, and how we can ever let them go.

«Un romanzo come nessun altro».Amitav GhoshShai è una giovane donna indiana disillusa e stanca, ma decisa a ritrovarsi. Un viaggio per salutare la sua vecchiatata le farà scoprire radici indigene che le parlano di futuro più di quanto non facesse la grande città. Evelyn è una studentessa dell’Inghilterra edoardiana che osa interessarsi di botanica e salpare alla volta dell’India non per cercare un marito, ma una pianta da studiare. E poi c’è Goethe, lo scrittore, che durante il suo viaggio in Italia trova un’ispirazione decisiva e illuminante. Tre storie, tre epoche, tre luoghi diversi. Tre personaggi che, a un certo punto della loro vita, si ritrovano a cercare una pianta nota come Diengiei, che grazie a un’auto-metamorfosi costante sembrerebbe contenere in sé le caratteristiche di qualunque altra pianta al mondo. Viaggi diversi, ma uniti dall’ascolto di una natura senza tempo, in cui tutto risuona, tutto è l’urgenza delle emozioni, la necessità della riflessione, la sete di avventura e di giustizia. Che il Diengiei sia reale o leggendario alla fine non conta, nella ricerca trovano qualcosa di veramente un sentiero da percorrere che dà serenità e appagamento alle loro vite. Un libro in cui immergersi, un romanzo audace e con una sorprendente potenza evocativa, da una delle voci più apprezzate della narrativa e della poesia indiana contemporanea.

Helter Skelter Magazine's New Writing section was started in 2012 as a way to promote emerging writers and poets in India; to create a space for original, fresh short fiction and poetry.The first three volumes of New Writing have seen teething troubles, missed connections, black cats and street lamps, and a whole lot of strange love. Vol. 4 is Helter Skelter’s first print edition and features original writing handpicked by Janice Pariat, Nitoo Das, and Jerry Pinto.

Richement inspiré d’idées scientifiques et botaniques, Tout ce que la lumière effleure rassemble les aventures et les expériences de quatre personnages intrigants, de l’Inde à la Laponie, de 1732 à nos jours, en une véritable ode à la nature infiniment vivante.Shai est une jeune femme de l’Inde moderne. Perdue, à la dérive, elle voyage dans le nord-est du pays afin de retrouver sa nourrice et rencontre une population profondément respectueuse de la terre et de la nature, alors que les dégâts écologiques causés par l’exploitation d’uranium sont de plus en plus importants dans la région. Evelyn est étudiante en sciences dans l’Angleterre du début du XXe siècle. Inspirée par les écrits botaniques de Goethe, elle quitte Cambridge pour partir découvrir les forêts sacrées du Bas-Himalaya, à la recherche d’une fleur fabuleuse. Goethe est philosophe, écrivain, et l’un des esprits les plus brillants de son époque. Lors d’un voyage à travers l’Italie dans les années 1780, il formule ses idées pour son livre Essai sur la métamorphose des plantes, un texte révélateur et peu connu qui prône l’observation de la nature dans tout ce qu’elle a de vivant et de changeant plutôt que la catégorisation systématique préconisée par le célèbre botaniste Linné, notamment lors de son voyage en Laponie en 1732. En se concentrant à la fois sur la compréhension et sur la dynamique de la nature, chacun des personnages est entraîné dans une quête grâce à laquelle il se redécouvrira lui, mais aussi l’environnement qui l’entoure.

Shai est une jeune femme de l’Inde moderne. Perdue, à la dérive, elle voyage dans le nord-est du pays afin de retrouver sa nourrice. Evelyn est étudiante en sciences dans l’Angleterre du début du XXe siècle. Inspirée par les écrits botaniques de Gœthe, elle quitte Cambridge pour partir découvrir les forêts sacrées du Bas-Himalaya. Gœthe est philosophe, écrivain, et l’un des esprits les plus brillants de son époque. Lors d’un voyage à travers l’Italie dans les années 1780, il formule ses idées pour son livre Essai sur la métamorphose des plantes, un texte révélateur et peu connu qui remet en question la propension de l’humanité à réduire les plantes – et le monde – en parties immuables. Linné, le célèbre botaniste et taxonomiste qui a déclaré « Dieu a créé le monde, Linné l’a organisé » se lance en 1732 dans une expédition vers un monde inconnu, les confins de la Laponie. Tout ce que la lumière effleure rassemble de manière étonnante des personnes et des lieux qui semblent, au premier abord, éloignées les unes des autres dans le temps et dans l’espace. Pourtant, tout est résonance, tout est connexion... Richement inspiré d’idées scientifiques et botaniques, mais aussi des mythes et croyances indiennes, Tout ce que la lumière effleure entraîne le lecteur dans un tourbillon de thèmes en constance expansion : les contrastes entre l’Inde moderne et son passé colonial, la vie urbaine et rurale, le capitalisme et les traditions séculaires.

Nove personagens relembram seu relacionamento com uma jovem – a mesma mulher – que eles amaram ou que os amou. Nós a juntamos, assim como fazemos com outras pessoas em nossas vidas, em lascas incompletas, mas iluminadoras. Situado em cidades conhecidas e sem nome, movendo-se entre o leste e o oeste, Nove partes de um coração é um compêndio de perspectivas mutáveis ​​que acompanham a vida de uma mulher, tornando-a deslumbrantemente real em um momento e obscurecendo-a no momento seguinte. O novo romance, primorosamente escrito, de Janice Pariat, é sobre a natureza frágil e fragmentada da identidade – como os outros nos veem apenas em pedaços e como às vezes tendemos a nos tornar o que os outros nos percebem ser.