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Atlas of Unknowns

by Tania James (Goodreads Author)

3.64 of 5 stars 3.64 · rating details · 463 ratings · 107 reviews

A poignant, funny, blazingly original debut novel about sisterhood, the tantalizing dream of America, and the secret histories and hilarious eccentricities of families everywhere.

In the wake of their mother’s mysterious death, Linno and Anju are raised in Kerala by their father, Melvin, a reluctant Christian prone to bouts of dyspepsia, and their grandmother, the superstit...more A poignant, funny, blazingly original debut novel about sisterhood, the tantalizing dream of America, and the secret histories and hilarious eccentricities of families everywhere.

In the wake of their mother’s mysterious death, Linno and Anju are raised in Kerala by their father, Melvin, a reluctant Christian prone to bouts of dyspepsia, and their grandmother, the superstitious and strong-willed Ammachi. When Anju wins a scholarship to a prestigious school in America, she seizes the opportunity, even though it means betraying her sister. In New York, Anju is plunged into the elite world of her Hindu American host family, led by a well-known television personality and her fiendishly ambitious son, a Princeton drop out determined to make a documentary about Anju’s life. But when Anju finds herself ensnared by her own lies, she runs away and lands a job as a bikini waxer in a Queens beauty salon.

Meanwhile, back in Kerala, Linno is undergoing a transformation of her own, rejecting the wealthy blind suitor with whom her father had sought to arrange her marriage and using her artistic gifts as a springboard to entrepreneurial success. When Anju goes missing, Linno strikes out farther still, with a scheme to procure a visa so that she can travel to America to search for her vanished sister.

The convergence of their journeys—toward each other, toward America, toward a new understanding of self and country, and toward a heartbreaking mystery long buried in their shared past—brings to life a predicament that is at once modern and timeless: the hunger for independence and the longing for home; the need to preserve the past and the yearning to break away from it. Tania James combines the gifts of an old-fashioned storyteller—engrossing drama, flawless control of plot, beautifully drawn characters, surprises around every turn—with a voice that is fresh and funny and powerfully alive with the dilemmas of modern life. She brings grace, humor, deep feeling, and the command of a born novelist to this marvelous debut.(less)

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published April 21st 2009 by Knopf (first published 2009)

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DSC Prize 2011 Longlist

2nd out of 16 books — 3 voters

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4th out of 5 books — 1 voter

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Feb 11, 2012 Alline rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was a hand-off from a favorite, book-loving guest. When she arrived she didn't even say 'hello.' Instead, it was simply a big hug and "I have a GREAT book for you!" One of the things I liked best was that by the time she gave it to me it looked as if she had dropped it in the bathtub, at least twice. :)

Anyway, I really liked this book - I really liked the characters, loved the story telling method, and loved the ending. All the pieces fit together, and yet I never really knew where exa...more

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Aug 29, 2010 Kavyen rated it 5 of 5 stars

The first few chapters dint impress me as much and I decided to let it lie there.. that is till I managed to pick it up again yesterday. Once I started with where I left I just could not put the book down.

Atlas of unknowns is a wonderful tribute to the love and bonding of two sisters Linno and Anju Vallara. Linno is the eldest of the two sisters and is a very interesting character. She has only one hand after having lost it in an accident playing with firecrackers when she was young. In spite of...more

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Jun 21, 2010 Janice rated it 5 of 5 stars

Anju, a top student in Kerala, betrays her older sister Linno by presenting Linno's sketchbook as her own and so winning a scholarship to an American prep school. But despite Anju's gift for getting herself out of sticky situations by lying, she isn't able to preserve her ruse for long and is soon expelled from the school. So begins her journey as a (possibly) illegal alien in New York. Meanwhile, Linno and the girls' father Melvin cast about for ways in which they can find Anju, who goes "missi...more

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Jun 16, 2009 Darya rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Atlas of Unknowns
Tania James is Indian and studied at Harvard and Columbia. In Atlas of Unknowns, she uses her obviously brilliant education to draw on her cultural background and write an absolutely dazzling novel about the human condition. Atlas of Unknowns is the story of two Indian sisters, how they come of age and search for their place in life. Linno, the eldest, is traumatized by her mother’s untimely death and an accident that led to her losing her hand. Anju follows in her mother’s foot...more Atlas of Unknowns
Tania James is Indian and studied at Harvard and Columbia. In Atlas of Unknowns, she uses her obviously brilliant education to draw on her cultural background and write an absolutely dazzling novel about the human condition. Atlas of Unknowns is the story of two Indian sisters, how they come of age and search for their place in life. Linno, the eldest, is traumatized by her mother’s untimely death and an accident that led to her losing her hand. Anju follows in her mother’s footsteps, searching for a way to help her family immigrate overseas, to the fairytale land that is America.
They are amazingly close, even when quarreling. Neither can imagine life without the other. And yet they end up worlds apart, both literally (India and New York) and figuratively: one spins a web of lies and deals with the consequences, having her illusions shattered in the process, while the other becomes courageous and strong, fulfilling her dreams, all because of her love for her sister. Each discovers separate facets of their family’s secrets and is empowered by them.
Tania James is a master craftsman of words. Indeed, Atlas of Unknowns is probably a good textbook to use in any writing class, so skilled is the use of descriptions, setting and tone to create just the right background, the proper scene and lighting, for every step of every character’s development. There were literally no moments I couldn’t imagine, no scenes where I had to fill in blank spots on the canvas.
Every character is developed, every character changes in the course of the novel. We learn of the past in flashbacks of Melvin’s (their father) and Bird’s (a friend of their mother) memory, and never does the reminiscence feel contorted or contrived. Each recollection is triggered by a certain event in the present, and it seems difficult to imagine the characters not remembering just the thing that comes to their mind (which is yet another testimony of James’s mastery of her craft). Characters actions are based solely on what they know, even if we (as readers) are given a behind the scenes look and want to plead with them not to.
Finally, I can’t omit mentioning how beautifully and intricately modern-day India is portrayed. There is no anthropological condescending, no attempt o simplify or adapt the norms and customs to be understandable for a Western reader. We grasp them, but not from the external position of onlooker, but from the internal viewpoint of an interested reader, one drawn in and held by the absolutely realistic world of the novel. Never did the thought “Oh my god! How different their customs are!” cross my mind, I was cajoled into accepting the novel’s world as completely natural, normal and real.
Overall, Atlas of Unknowns has few flaws, which is probably the only thing that slightly alarmed me. The Greatest novels all break rules or bend them to some degree, and Atlas does neither. Whether or not this is a good thing is something I still haven’t quite decided for myself, but most certainly Atlas of Unknowns is a beautiful and inspiring read. It’s certainly a notch above most of the novels written today.
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May 13, 2009 Rhlibrary added it

Shelves: marie-s-picks

There is great joy to be had in recommending something written by a first-time author. Atlas of Uknowns is no different. As in many other books, the reader gets caught up in the plot’s central relationship, this time between the two sisters: homely Linno, kept in the shadows of the family home in Kerala, India and Anju, the dreamer, whose good fortune brings her to New York City where she must navigate the city streets, her family’s dreams, and a life-altering secret all at once. Add to that a s...more

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May 15, 2009 Janine rated it 4 of 5 stars

I always find it hard to write a review about a book I really enjoyed, worried that my words can never do it justice. This book is one of those. From the very first page I knew I was going to thoroughly enjoy the story. It's as if, the two main characters, Linno the artist and her younger ambitious sister Anju become your own sisters. They take you on a journey with them from childhood to adolesence to the point when they are beginning to become adults. You watch them make decisions that effect...more I always find it hard to write a review about a book I really enjoyed, worried that my words can never do it justice. This book is one of those. From the very first page I knew I was going to thoroughly enjoy the story. It's as if, the two main characters, Linno the artist and her younger ambitious sister Anju become your own sisters. They take you on a journey with them from childhood to adolesence to the point when they are beginning to become adults. You watch them make decisions that effect the sequence of events that makes up their life. You ponder with them about the "what-if's" and the paths not taken, and you hope that somehow in the end the decisions that they did make will all turn out well. The secrets, the lies, the hopes, the unspoken truths. None are really addressed aloud, no one speaks of these things in plain simple terms and outright words, but they exist and they drive the story and they are the reasons the characters are they way they are, and you know this without them having to say it out loud. There are events that make Linno who she is, but she never addresses them, she chooses to not look at them, pretends they don't exist, hoping it will fade away, while she does her best to hide in the background. There is a weight on Anju's shoulder's that her family and her neighbors have dropped there but she never complains of its heaviness, she carries it with her every day, with every choice she makes. This is who they are, yet it is not all they are. Linno and Anju manage to break free from their characterizations interestingly enough by using the instincts and skills acquired from these characterizations. They become more than just an excellent artist missing a hand or an ambitious smart girl with a tendency to lie. They learn from their mistakes and they confront the unspoken truths, they deal with the lies, they realize which hopes are theirs and which hopes are other peoples. Some secrets are revealed, but not all, and its okay that way, the story still feels complete.

I really enjoyed this book. I reccommend it to anyone and everyone who enjoys a good read. (less)

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Dec 20, 2012 Saudha rated it 5 of 5 stars

Atlas of Unknowns is one of those books that you wish would never end. The cast of characters were drawn so well by the author, Tania James. They felt real, flesh and blood creatures who were flawed and human and always propelled by not-so-noble intentions. In spite of these flaws, the characters were likeable - and that's due to James' undoubted talent at creating them and giving them life. I loved the scenes set in Kerala (and as I am from the state, felt a thrill of recognition and experience...more

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May 26, 2009 Erika rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Atlas of Unknowns is one of those rare, perceptive books that effortlessly tackles a battery of issues ranging from the benign to the tragically consequential and still manages to keep a sense of humor. There is no one narrator. Instead the plot follows the lives and voices of the Vallara family from Kumarakom, Kerala, India: father Melvin, grandmother Ammachi, and daughters Linno and Anju. Gracie, Melvin’s wife and mother of his daughters, is gone, her death shrouded in mystery and never spoken...more Atlas of Unknowns is one of those rare, perceptive books that effortlessly tackles a battery of issues ranging from the benign to the tragically consequential and still manages to keep a sense of humor. There is no one narrator. Instead the plot follows the lives and voices of the Vallara family from Kumarakom, Kerala, India: father Melvin, grandmother Ammachi, and daughters Linno and Anju. Gracie, Melvin’s wife and mother of his daughters, is gone, her death shrouded in mystery and never spoken of in the beginning of the book except by way of insinuating it as a suicide.
After a terrible accident involving a live firecracker, older sister Linno has her hand amputated, leaving her with feelings of hopelessness and despair as she is forced to learn how to write all over again and use her left hand as seamlessly as she had her right. The worst of it is Linno is an artist and can draw beautifully--a talent she resorts to in idle moments of unease and boredom. However, her artistry is of little solace in the face of the insurmountable obstacles of her handicap and her femininity. She is bleak as she drops out of school, already far behind her peers and resigns herself to staying at home and helping her grandmother as she works to transfer the magic of her drawing to her remaining left hand. Without an education, and perhaps, even with one, Linno realizes her options as a woman are few and an insufferable marriage lies waiting for her.
Anju is a different story, the sister with the brains who sees her future integrally linked with her studies and imagines a life in New York on a full paid scholarship to attend The Sitwell School for her “Senior” year. Those ten months have the potential for a student visa to transform itself into a green card, the golden ticket for her family’s poor luck in India to make a better life for themselves in America. But after Anju applies for the scholarship and receives an interview, she flails miserably against the surging tide of other cookie cutter applicants and resorts to the unthinkable: a lie that threatens to ruin her relationship with Linno forever. In an attempt to shine, she claims Linno’s drawings as her own and immediately warms herself to her American teacher.
After winning the scholarship, it doesn’t take long for Anju’s guilt to collide with her seemingly selfish machinations; her lie catches up to her quickly and the blow it delivers is disastrous. But both her and Linno begin journeys of self discovery that revolve around the death and absence of their mother, their relationship to each other, the kind strangers they meet, and their families separated by continents and long stretches of time and misunderstanding.
For Linno: a chance to exercise her artistic talents and ease the financial burden of her father who works as a personal driver. For Anju: an apparent chance meeting with an old friend of her mother and the development of an uneasy partnership with Rohit, the son of her American Indian host parents who is determined to make a film about an American immigration system, “Outdated, unwieldy, unable to enforce its own rules” (p 273 UK trade edition).
Tania James writes beautifully and with delicate perception. She captures the quirks of families everywhere perfectly and humorously through a revealing cultural lens that is both insightful and heartwarming. I really loved reading this book for the kind of prose that makes writing look easy and enchanting. The story is really about so many things, it’s hard to pick just one. Anju’s Catholic Indian upbringing brings a jolt of culture shock juxtaposed against her American classmates and assimilated host family. Linno’s card business is rife with her efforts to navigate the foreign symbols of other cultures and religions. Rohit’s frustration and selfish persistence to stand for a culture he’s largely rejected is exemplary of the divide between him and Anju: products of the countries they were raised in with completely different languages and values.
The book is also about family and self-discovery. Linno and Anju both face the tremendous obstacles of shame and self-doubt. They are forced to look at themselves and the consequences of their actions, but grow into incredibly self aware and perhaps even self assured young women who both, by the end of the book, assert themselves, and confront and embrace the truth of their lives.
The difficulty of families is that sometimes we feel, despite the best of intentions, that they get in the way of dreams or aspirations. As a result, people leave to find themselves and on the journey wind up discovering more about themselves in terms of the relationship to those they left behind. Tania Smith handles this very well and I was impressed with how everyone found their way back to each other less confused and more willing to confront their demons, warts and all.
I’m very glad Anju stopped her immature and frightened habit of lying so much to so many different people, even after she thought she was doing what was right. She was incredibly believable, though, as were the other characters, although I am a little disappointed with how Birdie and her loss faded into the monotonous of the every day. Thinking about it now, I suppose that just means she was finally able to heal and move on. I guess I just wanted a little more of a happy ending for her and some kind of resolution other than, “she’s gone, live goes on, get over it.”
Rohit was an annoying character whose feigned compassion spawned from a selfish desire to fluff his own feathers and I was half disappointed that he (spoiled child I see him as) got to tag along with mom at the end, but was relieved the trip turned out to be more of a learning experience to temper his ego.
Overall this was an amazing book. I didn’t expect it to be so engrossing. I love books that explore multicultural issues and Tania James was phenomenal integrating Anju and Linno’s complicated relationship across continents. It almost makes me wish I had a sister to share such a profound connection with!(less)

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Oct 04, 2012 Ilyhana Kennedy rated it 4 of 5 stars

'Atlas of Unknowns' is a journey book, both in the sense of travelling from place to place, and in travelling through inner travail.
It is exquisitely written, engaging complete immersion. The character development is gradual, deepening into intensity, flaws and strengths offering starkly honest portrayals of very real people.
Failure is a theme of the novel, layered into other themes of regret, social taboos, betrayal, shame and guilt, and also achievement against all odds.
There are complex dynam...more

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Sep 26, 2012 Shana rated it 2 of 5 stars

Tania James’ Atlas of Unknowns is first on the list for this weekends’ reads. It’s a fairly hefty novel about an Indian family, but mostly revolves around the sisters’ discovery of themselves and their family history.

The older sister loses an arm in a freak accident, declines a marriage to a wealthy, blind suitor, and is a fantastic artist. The younger sister is brilliant, and in an attempt to win a scholarship to a school in the U.S., lies at the expense of her sister. The novel goes on to show...more

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Feb 25, 2010 Paula Hebert rated it 4 of 5 stars

what can I say about this book that will give it its due? it is a wonderful story of a family in India, primarially two sisters, and follows their life from a christmas eve when they are very young, until they are nearing twenty. love, disaster, misunderstandings, lies and deceit, the hysterical mistakes and adjustments of an immigrant to America, all the twists and turns of fate, no matter how much we think we are in charge of out lives; all these things and more are bound up in this story. the...more

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Mar 18, 2010 Jennifer (JC-S) rated it 4 of 5 stars

‘But the water, having no memory, moves on.’

After the death of their mother Gracie, Linno and Anju are raised in Kerala by their father, Melvin, and their grandmother Ammachi. Anju wins a scholarship to a prestigious school in America, and lies, thus betraying her sister to accept it. Anju’s lie is uncovered a few months into her scholarship, and her life changes. Fleeing from her host family, Anju works in a beauty salon and tries to obtain a green card. Linno, seeking to travel to America to f...more

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Aug 23, 2012 Paige rated it 5 of 5 stars

Everything about this novel is, to me, near perfect. But before you go rushing in, you should know that James' writing is quiet, speckled with humour, and moves at a steady if not somewhat slow pace. Yet the characters are so well-rendered that you want to wrap each of them up into a hug, and it their own private sets of unanswered questions that gently pull the reader forward through the narrative like a warm undercurrent. In this way, the story unfolds masterfully, retracing its steps to give...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Ruth rated it 4 of 5 stars

The first book I read this year was so good-this means it's going to be a good year! It's about two sisters who grow up in India with their dad and grandmother. Through a series of events the prospect/actuality of going to the US comes to both of them in different ways and realizations are made, old secrets are brought to light, etc. I liked all the characters, which is the most important thing. I also liked the way there was a balance between the portrayal of slivers of the Indian expat communi...more

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Jun 11, 2009 Rosa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Tania James weaves a inspiring story about Linno and Anju, two sisters who live with their father and grandmother in India. The girls' mother dies when they are young, her death rumored to be a suicide. Linno, an artist who looses her right hand in a firework accident when she is young, teaches herself how to write and draw with her left hand. Anju, the younger sister, excels at school, and applies for a scholarship that would take her to New York City. In order to pass the scholarship interview...more

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May 29, 2009 Rachel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Atlas of Unknowns is the story of a family torn apart by betrayal and separated geographically by thousands of miles. Linno and Anju Vallara are the sisters at the center of the family who must learn to navigate the difficult life choices that dictate the complexity of life's journey. The story unfolds as the sisters learn from and reflect on the difficult moments that have brought them to their present circumstances.

Nathan Englander’s cover blurb calls Tania James “a natural born storyteller,”...more Atlas of Unknowns is the story of a family torn apart by betrayal and separated geographically by thousands of miles. Linno and Anju Vallara are the sisters at the center of the family who must learn to navigate the difficult life choices that dictate the complexity of life's journey. The story unfolds as the sisters learn from and reflect on the difficult moments that have brought them to their present circumstances.

Nathan Englander’s cover blurb calls Tania James “a natural born storyteller,” but that epigraph diminishes the artistry of James’s narrative. The story develops artfully, weaving through the past and the present to create a holistic view of the family from many different perspectives. Each family member contributes a voice, and each voice is striking in its unique perspective. No character has all the answers, but together they are able to tell the full story of their family.

The story’s prose is delightful, with many truly beautiful turns of phrase, and James is masterful in her ability to so seamlessly tie Indian culture into her story. Where for the non-native reader Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things fails to fully integrate the culture into the narrative, Atlas of Unknowns subtly reveals the little details that color a culture and a geographic location. For example, instead of telling the reader that in India, there are lizards on the walls in some homes, James simply mentions the presence of a wall lizard in her description of a scene in the Vallara family’s home. These subtle colorings help the reader to feel more a passive observer of the scene, rather than having culture instructed through a series of carefully wrought explanations.

James also aptly manages a very difficult subject: loyalty and betrayal, as part of a coming-of-age story. The story feels in some ways like Allegra Goodman’s Intuition, in that the characters are feeling their way through right and wrong, and exploring their inner motivations in an attempt to make sense of the world around them. But James’s characters feel much more real, and their situations are more universal and broadly accessible. The characters’ flaws, in the bildungsroman context, may also be more forgivable, and certainly the lessons are more easily swallowed.

In addition, the bi-continental setting allows exploration of a number of important themes, including multiculturalism, immigration (legal and illegal), prejudice and cultural bias, technology and progress, and dreams and aspirations (contemporary social mobility?). No one character is ever right – each is flawed in his or her own way – but the variety of character perspectives that James crafts contributes to the rich dialogue on these and other themes.

Overall, a captivating read and a highly recommended first book from Tania James!(less)

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Sep 26, 2009 Terri rated it 5 of 5 stars

In Atlas of Unknowns, first time novelist Tania James, tells the funny and honest story of two sisters trying to find their places in this world amidst betrayal and haunting secrets. The older sister, Linno, is scarred by an unfortunate accident and the truth behind her mother's death. She's a gifted artist, yet does not shine the way her younger sister, Anju, does academically. Anju is so successful in school that she applies for and receives a scholarship to attend an elite private school in N...more In Atlas of Unknowns, first time novelist Tania James, tells the funny and honest story of two sisters trying to find their places in this world amidst betrayal and haunting secrets. The older sister, Linno, is scarred by an unfortunate accident and the truth behind her mother's death. She's a gifted artist, yet does not shine the way her younger sister, Anju, does academically. Anju is so successful in school that she applies for and receives a scholarship to attend an elite private school in New York. Though she wins the scholarship under false pretenses, she thinks this will be her opportunity to improve her family's situation. There's also a good supporting cast of characters. These include Anju's Hindu host family, the Sankalis, whose matriarch is a cohost on an American talk show that seems to be a caricature of a real life four woman hosted show and a son who defers college to pursue documentary film making. Then there's Bird, who brings Anju some semblance of comfort in the midst of culture shock and has a secret tie to her. Set in Kerala, India and New York, we see two sisters navigate issues like marriage, family, post 9/11 immigration, and self-discovery.

"For such a small world, the space from person to person can span a whole sea."
This describes the relationship between Anju and Linno both emotionally and physically. However, the emotional divide lessens once the spatial divide becomes a factor.

I absolutely loved this book! At first, I thought this was going to be a story about one fortunate, scheming sister and the other talented and woeful. But, this isn't the case. Even though Linno lacks self-confidence early in the story, when Anju stabs her in the back, Linno calls her out. And like you would hope sisters would do, Linno still supports Anju's temporary success and she desperately tries to get to her when everything falls apart. I cheered Linno on through her self discovery and all but spewed venom at Anju, even after she loses everything. I did, however, sympathize with their father Melvin once he finds himself working for the wealthy man who was once betrothed to his deceased wife. James has a keen sense of narrative. Her characters are well developed, relative, and recognizable. She handles the issues of immigration in a post 9/11 America and a young Indian woman challenging marital customs with honesty. I felt very satisfied once finished with this. A small part of me didn't want it to end, and that's when you know you've read something really special.(less)

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May 05, 2010 Lolly LKH rated it 2 of 5 stars

Apparently a lot of people ate this book up and out came stars. I never felt I was in the story and the characters didn't touch me. While I understood the quest for identity and the cultural shock, I just didn't feel the story flow inside of me. I read a review on Amazon, and they stated that the 'soul' (I sometimes call it the meat) of the story was missing and I think that alone is what left me disinterested in the characters. I believe we will see more from this novelist, and likely she will...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Anita rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved this- Tania James is a great cross-cultural storyteller. The verisimilitude in scenes of both India and the United States was remarkable. When faced with "realism" in contemporary fiction, I often find myself unable to fully relate, in spite of enjoying it. In the past, this difficulty with "realism" has included pretty much all Indian fiction writers, in spite of a shared cultural background. I was entirely engrossed in this novel for a little over a day and part of that, I think, was t...more

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Sep 20, 2011 Lotusbright rated it 4 of 5 stars

James is a skillful writer, creating sympathetic and complex characters with realistic dialogue, flaws, and strengths. The one criticism that really stands out is that James occasionally uses Malayalam words with the expectation that the user will know what they mean, and while many of them can be figured out by contextual clues a few needed to be looked up. While "having to look up a word" is a pretty minor criticism, as they go, some users may find that having to stop and figure out (or look u...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Dóra rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What I apparently have to accept is that I rarely like female authors and I even more rarely like Asian (east, south, whatever, the important part is vastly different culture and way of thinking) authors, so this book had very little chance with me. The story is strong, the storytelling is just gnawing at my nerves. If I need to sum it up in one word, it's tawdry. Too many adjectives, too 'delicate' description, too much talking, too much whatever. Unrealistic, irritating. I prefer simpler thing...more

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Feb 14, 2013 Deon Stonehouse rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-set-in-india, books-set-in-new-york, great-writing-general-fiction

Atlas of Unknowns by Tania James is about two sisters. Betrayal and forgiveness form this funny, heartbreaking beautiful story. Anju and Linno are the apples of their father’s eye. They are everything for him since the death of their mother when they were small children, he loves them dearly. Anju sees her future through education. She works hard in school, always trying to stay at the head of her class. Linno suffered a horrible childhood injury, but her love of drawing still blossomed. As a li...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Chung-yee rated it 5 of 5 stars

A beautiful novel with essential ingrediants that touches the soul: rich and complex cast of characters, an intricate-wovened storyline; and lush and stunning vocabulary. The storyline is just a small part of what holds the reader's attention and touches many social issues including post-9/11 immigration, family and sisterhood relations, personal identity and self-discovery, India, New York and love. Not a quick read, but one for the relaxed reads on your favourite reading chair, with tea and la...more

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Jun 14, 2012 Jessica rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Overall, I'm disappointed in this book.

I enjoyed the beginning a lot and was interested in the characters and the story but by page 160 or so I was getting a little tired of it. The characters became kind of static and there was no real movement of the plot.

Somehow I missed everything the jacket flap said I would find ("gifts of an old-fashioned storyteller - engrossing drama, flawless control of plot, beautifully drawn character, surprises around every turn - ..." Really?) I also missed all t...more

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Jul 26, 2009 Kristy rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was an unexpectedly excellent book by a first-time novelist. It tells the story of two sisters from India -- one who loses her hand in a fireworks accident, but retains her artistic talent, and the other who claims her sisters work as her own in order to give herself the edge in an competition to win a scholarship for a year of study in New York. Any description of the book makes it sound slight, when in reality this closely observed story is as simple and as complicated as real life. And t...more

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Nov 05, 2012 Barb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: great-covers, owned-books

I found this book on the clearance shelves at my local bookstore, and it's cover grabbed my attention. I'm very glad I decided to pick this one up ... one of the best $5 I've ever spent.
It's a story of sisters ... well two stories of sisters.
The main event is that of Anju and Linno, who are sisters separated by half the world. We're taken through each of their 'journeys' to be together again. Their story is touching, funny and represents the ups and downs of a sister / sister relationship well.
T...more

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Apr 04, 2011 Judith rated it 1 of 5 stars

The subject of this book was just my cup of tea: a young Indian girl travels to America to live in NYC and attend school on a scholarship which she won because she stole her sister's artwork and presented it as her own. But for some reason, the book didn't hold my interest and I kept forcing myself to pick it up and read a few more chapters till I finally gave up. The sisters were interesting and I have a vague curiosity about how they end up, but I'll get over it.

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Jul 26, 2012 Cdelory rated it 3 of 5 stars

I feel like I should have liked this book more than I did. I was interested to find out what happened to these sisters and whether life in America would live up to its promise for the sister with the scholarship. Of course you know it won't given her acceptance was based on a lie, but you're not completely prepared for the story that unfolds about the sister left behind. Perhaps I wasn't that drawn to it because neither of these character felt fully alive to me.

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Jul 30, 2012 Mlowry36 rated it 4 of 5 stars

I loved this book. It was recommended by Stephanie Vandrick as a good page-turner, but well written, for my trip to Poland. I didn't get it in time for that. A story about betrayals in the family, but ultimately stronger ties. A Kerala family; one daughter gets a scholarship for one year to study in New York City - so the story weaves back and forth between Kerala, India, and NYC. Wonderful characters. Wry sense of humor

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Jul 10, 2010 Darshan Elena rated it 4 of 5 stars

A good read and quick, this novel hooked me. I loved its spirited descriptions of Jackson Heights. I also appreciated its astute critique of western tourists in Kerala. More than that, I appreciated how Tania James revealed character nuances over time, chapter, and geography. The best bit, however, was the ending, surprising and endearing, providing relief I didn't realize I desired.

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“As she continues to answer questions about her employment, all these words mean little more to her now than I AM SOPHISTICATED, I AM WORTHY, I AM SOPHISTICATED, I AM WORTHY. She attempts the posture of a politician's wife, shoulders held back, dignifIed yet modest.” — 1 person liked it

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