The Far Field

A Novel

By: Madhuri Vijay

Narrated by: Sneha Mathan

In the wake of her mother's death, Shalini, a privileged and restless young woman from Bangalore, sets out for a remote Himalayan village in the troubled northern region of Kashmir. Certain that the loss of her mother is somehow connected to the decade-old disappearance of Bashir Ahmed, a charming Kashmiri salesman who frequented her childhood home, she is determined to confront him. But upon her arrival, Shalini is brought face to face with Kashmir's politics, as well as the tangled history of the local family that takes her in. And when life in the village turns volatile and old hatreds threaten to erupt into violence, Shalini finds herself forced to make a series of choices that could hold dangerous repercussions for the very people she has come to love.

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Critic reviews

“Remarkable...an engrossing narrative.... Vijay’s stunning debut novel expertly intertwines the personal and political to pick apart the history of Jammu and Kashmir.” (Publishers Weekly)

What to say about this book?

I enjoyed listening to this book. I liked it but didn’t love it. I always love to hear about different cultures, so that part was great. But the ending was disappointing. Mostly, the book kept my attention but then at the end I was left thinking ... “is that it”???

great surprise

I stumbled upon this book purely by chance and I must confess that I loved it. I liked how it told the story from different perspectives and enlightening the world about a (to most of the world) little known conflict was a definite bonus.

Wonderfully rich characters and story

I loved hearing this book. the characters were brought to life by the reader and I literally would listen for hours, not wanting it to end. This was no fairy tale with a happy ending, but a story of flawed humans living their lives.

beautiful

a troublesome story beautifully told. a painful lesson about multiple cultures. I also see mental illness in one character. interesting to see how it is observed when not explicitly recognized

Pretty good story and decent first effort

Because I'm interested the difficult troubles in Kashmir and because I traveled and worked in Kashmir in 2006 and 2009 and because I lived in New Delhi for 5 years in the 1990s, I chose to read listen to this first novel by Maduri Vijay about Kashmir ... a novel which was strongly recommended by various book outlets. In 2009 I also read Salman Rusdie's great novel about Kashmir "Shalimar the Clown". There is really no comparison; I consider "Shalimar the Clown" one of Russia's best, along with "The Moro's Last Sigh" . Rushdie's novel about Kashmir is ten times more mature, erudite and artistic literature than "The Far Field". Still ,"The Far Field"I is a pleasant engaging and interesting story. It honestly evokes the physical beauty of the area as well as the intense tensions and suspicions that permeate life in rural Kashmir.