WINNER OF THE 2022 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE
A playful, feminist, and utterly original epic set in contemporary northern India, about a family and the inimitable octogenarian matriarch at its heart.
“A tale tells itself. It can be complete, but also incomplete, the way all tales are. This particular tale has a border and women who come and go as they please. Once you’ve got women and a border, a story can write itself . . .”
Eighty-year-old Ma slips into a deep depression after the death of her husband. Despite her family’s cajoling, she refuses to leave her bed. Her responsible eldest son, Bade, and dutiful, Reebok-sporting daughter-in-law, Bahu, attend to Ma’s every need, while her favorite grandson, the cheerful and gregarious Sid, tries to lift her spirits with his guitar. But it is only after Sid’s younger brother—Serious Son, a young man pathologically incapable of laughing—brings his grandmother a sparkling golden cane covered with butterflies that things begin to change.
With a new lease on life thanks to the cane’s seemingly magical powers, Ma gets out of bed and embarks on a series of adventures that baffle even her unconventional feminist daughter, Beti. She ditches her cumbersome saris, develops a close friendship with a hijra, and sets off on a fateful journey that will turn the family’s understanding of themselves upside down.
Rich with fantastical elements, folklore, and exuberant wordplay, Geetanjali Shree’s magnificent novel explores timely and timeless topics, including Buddhism, global warming, feminism, Partition, gender binary, transcending borders, and the profound joys of life. Elegant, heartbreaking, and funny, it is a literary masterpiece that marks the American debut of an extraordinary writer.
Translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell
Author’s name pronounced: Ghee-TAHN-juh-lee Shree
© 2023 HarperAudio (Audiobook): 9780063299436
Release date
Audiobook: 31 January 2023
WINNER OF THE 2022 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE
A playful, feminist, and utterly original epic set in contemporary northern India, about a family and the inimitable octogenarian matriarch at its heart.
“A tale tells itself. It can be complete, but also incomplete, the way all tales are. This particular tale has a border and women who come and go as they please. Once you’ve got women and a border, a story can write itself . . .”
Eighty-year-old Ma slips into a deep depression after the death of her husband. Despite her family’s cajoling, she refuses to leave her bed. Her responsible eldest son, Bade, and dutiful, Reebok-sporting daughter-in-law, Bahu, attend to Ma’s every need, while her favorite grandson, the cheerful and gregarious Sid, tries to lift her spirits with his guitar. But it is only after Sid’s younger brother—Serious Son, a young man pathologically incapable of laughing—brings his grandmother a sparkling golden cane covered with butterflies that things begin to change.
With a new lease on life thanks to the cane’s seemingly magical powers, Ma gets out of bed and embarks on a series of adventures that baffle even her unconventional feminist daughter, Beti. She ditches her cumbersome saris, develops a close friendship with a hijra, and sets off on a fateful journey that will turn the family’s understanding of themselves upside down.
Rich with fantastical elements, folklore, and exuberant wordplay, Geetanjali Shree’s magnificent novel explores timely and timeless topics, including Buddhism, global warming, feminism, Partition, gender binary, transcending borders, and the profound joys of life. Elegant, heartbreaking, and funny, it is a literary masterpiece that marks the American debut of an extraordinary writer.
Translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell
Author’s name pronounced: Ghee-TAHN-juh-lee Shree
© 2023 HarperAudio (Audiobook): 9780063299436
Release date
Audiobook: 31 January 2023
Step into an infinite world of stories
Overall rating based on 17 ratings
Heartwarming
Thought-provoking
Mind-blowing
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Bias Sinha
21 Apr 2023
Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree and translated by Daisy Rockwell has such a large canvas with such limited number of characters. The storyline is absolutely gripping and take us through the bureaucracy as well as ordinary lives, beautifully. Ma and Beti are absolutely real characters depicting true feelings of women of different age groups . Moreover, the pain of partition and the realities of the traumatic days are brought up vividly by Geetanjali Shree .This novel tells the story of weeping and bleeding India divided due by the British. A cruel rule which culminated in division of India in 1947 and Ganga-Yamuna culture, that is the culture of unity of various cultures, eroded and mother India bathed in blood of her own sons and daughters. I am blessed to go through this majestic novel. My heart has recorded the words of love and sorrow of the novel. The way the non-living things have been explained as having life is amazing.Complete life around us has been pictured in this great
Neera
27 Nov 2023
Narration is very good. Even translator had tried her best.
S
16 Jan 2024
5 stars for the narrator but the book is too pretentious. Just because something is “experimental” doesn’t mean it has to prove it artificially. The author got what she wanted, an international acclaim, but hasn’t inspired the present reader to pick up another one of hers.
Khushi
29 Mar 2024
Deepti you have done such a wonderful job. Amazing. Just amazing. I have already read the book once and this was my second reading, but with you this time. Thank you so much for doing this! It is an incredible performance by you and I am greatly indebted. You made the reading so much alive. Oh God. So much. The transitions from one voice to another, the dialogues, everything became so much alive when you gave voice to it. Thank you so much dear friend!
Somdeep
11 Sept 2023
It's like floating.. floating in the ocean of words.. through past, present and future ❤️
English
India