A review by bioarla
Latitudes of Longing by Shubhangi Swarup

2.0

Latitudes of Longing tells a multigenerational story where the lives of the characters are interconnected with each other, and interwoven with different landscapes of the Indian subcontinent. The novel starts in the Andaman Islands with Girija Prasad and Chanda Devi, his clairvoyant wife, and then moves to Burma with Mary and her convicted son Plato; to Nepal with Thapa and Bebo and finally we arrive in the “snow desert”, with Apo and Ghazala in a lost village in the no-man’s-land between India and Pakistan. Each story describes a different type of longing and desire of intimacy affecting the characters; yet room is given for more abstract feelings and considerations where the surrounding landscapes are more than just a mere background. The descriptions of the different locations, particularly the Andaman Islands and the Karakoram glaciers, are gorgeous and lyrical. Permeated by magical realism, the novel is however characterized by an extremely slow pace and is quite uneventful except for a couple of major events, making it hard for the readers to maintain their focus and interest.

Thanks to Hachette Australia/Quercus and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange of an honest review.