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The Lovers and the Leavers
In twelve linked stories, the characters in The Lovers and the Leavers intersect and drift apart across several years and continents. Komola, a maid in a quiet mansion in Dhaka, begins a doomed relationship with a handsome, mysterious man. Her nephew, a gifted little boy in her village, nurses a terrible secret, and his mother flees, ending up by the sea in Chennai. At the other end of the world, a Bangladeshi-American woman, Rox, lusts after a teenager, while her best friend, the rebellious Ila, must choose between love and tradition. Artfully woven with poems and photographs, these stories move between India, Bangladesh, America and Europe. A haunting, lyrical collection, The Lovers and the Leavers announces the arrival of a formidable talent.
163 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 23, 2024
This is a charming, electric, and unique collection I read in one night. The cover, with its imagery of red and green shades, is alluring enough to make a person pick it off a stacked shelf. By unique I mean I'm not sure I've come across a book this size (small enough to carry in a purse) that also includes photography and poems at the beginning of each linked story. It was illuminating to have such a beautiful, visual pause while reading. I loved the photography, even if I didn't care much for the execution of the poems. The lyricism of Hoque's prose also added to the allure:
These are twelve linked stories with settings in several continents. They follow characters who seek answers for issues that threaten their way of life, their individualism, or their place in a societal structure. Characters deal with love and abandonment, love and choice. One such character is Komola, a maid who has worked in a mansion for many years, and she is afraid of doing anything wrong because of the tortured past that led her to the mansion. She stays, even when she is mistreated. She thinks she has found love when she becomes the second wife of a mysterious man who has dark secrets and stealthy ways. Komola is estranged from her sister because of their traumatic past. She tries to trace her sister's whereabouts, and we learn about the sister in another linked story. These twelve stories occur with tense and narrative perspective changes employed in an artful way that is admirable.
Yet I find myself challenged often with linked stories. I'm not the best reader of linked stories because in order for them to work for me, I like to see a fully formed character with a compelling story return often. I'm a big reader of short story collections because I know where they end. This flaw in my reading pattern cannot handle the fluidity of linked stories. In this case, I think Komola could have been a very major and noticeable link. In my reading defense, I think of Olive in Olive Kitteridge when I consider a good example of a towering figure in a linked collection. Komola had so many interesting people and facets to her life that she could have entered several of these linked stories in a subtle but pointed way. Yet I found myself flipping through some pages quickly, desperate to find her. An interesting fact, however, is that the author, Hoque, is also a photographer with a book of travel photographs. So, if you love a mix of poetry, photography, and stories, you may want to give this one a try.
The candle will eventually gutter, long after their breath turns from laugher to sleep. The white bougainvillea she picked from the garden at dusk will drape its leaves around the sides of the cracked drinking glass. The gas-fired stove will remain burning, slowing spreading into the light of the morning.
These are twelve linked stories with settings in several continents. They follow characters who seek answers for issues that threaten their way of life, their individualism, or their place in a societal structure. Characters deal with love and abandonment, love and choice. One such character is Komola, a maid who has worked in a mansion for many years, and she is afraid of doing anything wrong because of the tortured past that led her to the mansion. She stays, even when she is mistreated. She thinks she has found love when she becomes the second wife of a mysterious man who has dark secrets and stealthy ways. Komola is estranged from her sister because of their traumatic past. She tries to trace her sister's whereabouts, and we learn about the sister in another linked story. These twelve stories occur with tense and narrative perspective changes employed in an artful way that is admirable.
Yet I find myself challenged often with linked stories. I'm not the best reader of linked stories because in order for them to work for me, I like to see a fully formed character with a compelling story return often. I'm a big reader of short story collections because I know where they end. This flaw in my reading pattern cannot handle the fluidity of linked stories. In this case, I think Komola could have been a very major and noticeable link. In my reading defense, I think of Olive in Olive Kitteridge when I consider a good example of a towering figure in a linked collection. Komola had so many interesting people and facets to her life that she could have entered several of these linked stories in a subtle but pointed way. Yet I found myself flipping through some pages quickly, desperate to find her. An interesting fact, however, is that the author, Hoque, is also a photographer with a book of travel photographs. So, if you love a mix of poetry, photography, and stories, you may want to give this one a try.
September 30, 2015
love it, almost didn't want to finish it because i'd have to leave it! (corny review, i know. more thoughts as i let it sink in.)
November 18, 2015
"The Lovers and the Leavers"...it was one of those rare finds, I stumbled upon this book while searching for something else, and the title got me hooked, instantly. It was not like "Whoa!", but like a song going round and round in my head, maybe because of the alliterative aspect of the title, a lilting note, as if carried by the wind. The book is a petite collection of some of the most charming stories I've ever come across. Of course, the best take-away from the book had to be the all-pervasive "three-in-one" indulgence, first the photo, then the poem, finally the prose. It added such a poignant charm to the already poetic world that Abeer Hoque had spun all around, and it was a delight just losing myself in the resultant old-world magic.
The stories are inter-linked, sometimes through characters, sometimes through events or locations, but are standalone gems as well. Since I got to read them all together, in this collection, I savoured the thoughts and feelings even more, as the sense of being overwhelmed never left me as such, the strains carried through from one story to another. The journey was long and winding, through Dhaka, Chennai, Barcelona, USA, etc. and I did not want it to end, as I got more and more glimpses into the lives and times of various characters. So here I am smiling along with Komola at love's doorstep, rushing to Rox's side as she tumbles into watery depths of lust, then running back to shed tears for Alo and poor Kishmish, listening raptly to Shagor's rejection of Modhu, seeing Ila dance with her "makorsha" steps, as spellbound with her as was Oyon and Tahsin, getting high and crashing even lower with Oyon, watching Rox and Arul collide again and again, as if for them, time just keeps turning itself, and then finally sinking my feet in mud and squalor with Gabriel and Pilar...it just goes on and on, all these people, some sure of their ways, some confused and willing to let it be, some wild and reckless, some lost in their sensitivities, all bound together by their own faith.
Hoque's words make her stories extraordinary...the poems, every single one of them touched my heart in so many ways, I read them again and again, some out loud, only to hear how the words would sound as they were spoken, strung together, again like a song with no end. The prose is lyrical, goes without saying, and reading the sentences felt akin to watching a watercolour painting being created, as different colours merged into each other to create the final vision- a true work of art, to savour and applaud. The photos brought in the fun element for me, as each would create a sense of mystery, a prologue in black and white to the story ahead, and when I would grasp fully the photo's significance, it would be my eureka moment, laced with a contented sigh!
A slice of life collection that I would forever hold close to my heart...
The stories are inter-linked, sometimes through characters, sometimes through events or locations, but are standalone gems as well. Since I got to read them all together, in this collection, I savoured the thoughts and feelings even more, as the sense of being overwhelmed never left me as such, the strains carried through from one story to another. The journey was long and winding, through Dhaka, Chennai, Barcelona, USA, etc. and I did not want it to end, as I got more and more glimpses into the lives and times of various characters. So here I am smiling along with Komola at love's doorstep, rushing to Rox's side as she tumbles into watery depths of lust, then running back to shed tears for Alo and poor Kishmish, listening raptly to Shagor's rejection of Modhu, seeing Ila dance with her "makorsha" steps, as spellbound with her as was Oyon and Tahsin, getting high and crashing even lower with Oyon, watching Rox and Arul collide again and again, as if for them, time just keeps turning itself, and then finally sinking my feet in mud and squalor with Gabriel and Pilar...it just goes on and on, all these people, some sure of their ways, some confused and willing to let it be, some wild and reckless, some lost in their sensitivities, all bound together by their own faith.
Hoque's words make her stories extraordinary...the poems, every single one of them touched my heart in so many ways, I read them again and again, some out loud, only to hear how the words would sound as they were spoken, strung together, again like a song with no end. The prose is lyrical, goes without saying, and reading the sentences felt akin to watching a watercolour painting being created, as different colours merged into each other to create the final vision- a true work of art, to savour and applaud. The photos brought in the fun element for me, as each would create a sense of mystery, a prologue in black and white to the story ahead, and when I would grasp fully the photo's significance, it would be my eureka moment, laced with a contented sigh!
A slice of life collection that I would forever hold close to my heart...
September 28, 2015
Luminous. I skipped second breakfast and elevensies just because I couldn't put it down. I am not biased, actually, in saying this because the author (my sister) will tell you that I don't actually like to read (any) literary fiction because I find them complex and effortful.
But The Lovers and the Leavers was lyrical without trying, character-driven, and well paced. These are qualities that I like in all my reading diversions.
But The Lovers and the Leavers was lyrical without trying, character-driven, and well paced. These are qualities that I like in all my reading diversions.
November 30, 2016
In Abeer Hoque's The Lovers and The Leavers, a collection of twelve linked stories, we meet a small group of characters whose lives intersect over the years at different stages of their lives. Small characters in one story may become main characters in next one. Every story begins with a few lines of poetry and a photograph. These stories are about different kinds of love and relationships. The settings of the stories shift from Bangladesh to the US to India to Spain.
The stories are mostly about diaspora experiences as the author has lived in many places. The feeling of alienation appears at times but she has a great insight about different cultural experiences. I read the poems again after reading the story and I think she uses the poems to give a different point of view. The poems, the photographs and the prose make a refreshing interwoven tapestry.
The stories are mostly about diaspora experiences as the author has lived in many places. The feeling of alienation appears at times but she has a great insight about different cultural experiences. I read the poems again after reading the story and I think she uses the poems to give a different point of view. The poems, the photographs and the prose make a refreshing interwoven tapestry.
July 6, 2018
One of those rare finds that takes you across an unfamiliar emotional terrain and leads you by the hand through lives that criss-cross each other and keep spiraling in and out of control. In a few pages, Hoque has climbed up and down all rungs of the social ladder, has peeked into the deepest thoughts and desires of people she created in her words.
I read the book in breaks, even though it is a short read and can be easily completed in one go. But I delayed and I savoured each story, each bit of poetry. It is the kind of book that you enjoy more when you taste every word on your lips and let yourself feel what the words say. The emotional commotion of the characters, their strengths and their weaknesses are very raw which in turn makes them very realistic and relatable. Each story flows into the next from a different and often distant perspective, with the characters moving in and out of the foreground. And yet, Hoque keeps the story going so that you can turn the final pages on a story only to find its incomplete closure two stories ahead. And reading her book made me realize how prone we are to all the wrong but seemingly right decisions in our lives, how vulnerable we are to our own selves, how debilitating a need can the presence of another human be. Be it the sisters, Komola and July struggling against poverty and loneliness, and paying heavily for their choices. Be it the pairs - Arul and Roxanne, or Artist brother and Ila - their tragic, confusing, imploding love of sorts, which makes you feel all the heat and sting of a lasting passion that will keep burning itself out and survive only as memories of touch and taste and sight. Personally, it broke my heart to see such emotional chaos that mirrors real life only too well. Desire and reason somehow always end up locking horns.
It was good to read something that stirred my heart often enough, in a different way each time.
I read the book in breaks, even though it is a short read and can be easily completed in one go. But I delayed and I savoured each story, each bit of poetry. It is the kind of book that you enjoy more when you taste every word on your lips and let yourself feel what the words say. The emotional commotion of the characters, their strengths and their weaknesses are very raw which in turn makes them very realistic and relatable. Each story flows into the next from a different and often distant perspective, with the characters moving in and out of the foreground. And yet, Hoque keeps the story going so that you can turn the final pages on a story only to find its incomplete closure two stories ahead. And reading her book made me realize how prone we are to all the wrong but seemingly right decisions in our lives, how vulnerable we are to our own selves, how debilitating a need can the presence of another human be. Be it the sisters, Komola and July struggling against poverty and loneliness, and paying heavily for their choices. Be it the pairs - Arul and Roxanne, or Artist brother and Ila - their tragic, confusing, imploding love of sorts, which makes you feel all the heat and sting of a lasting passion that will keep burning itself out and survive only as memories of touch and taste and sight. Personally, it broke my heart to see such emotional chaos that mirrors real life only too well. Desire and reason somehow always end up locking horns.
It was good to read something that stirred my heart often enough, in a different way each time.
May 26, 2016
Must read ! The stories are damn good but for me, its the poetry and the photographs in this book that makes it so special. Dazzling indeed.
August 14, 2020
This novel was a unique find. It is the book you would not stumble upon if you are not looking for it.
The Lovers and The Leavers is an assemblage of twelve related, beautiful heart-breaking stories where a group of characters’ lives converge over the years at distinctive stages of their lives. The narrative progresses between India, Bangladesh, America and Europe. It also includes various subjects like domestic abuse, extramarital affairs, drug addiction, religious conflicts and racism.
This is a book about love; diverse shades of love and the intricacy of relationships. It explains that love doesn’t always result with romance or with a happily ever after. Nor is it as straightforward as being black and white.
The narration is one of its biggest strengths. The prose is straightforward. The author weaves the stories with poems and photographs. Even though the stories don’t follow in a sequential order, it still fits, and the story progresses smoothly.
One of my favourite lines from the book: “The beauty of belonging isn’t that it lasts forever, but that you think it will.”
One needs to read it to understand how magnificent this book is, and I’m glad that I discovered it.
The Lovers and The Leavers is an assemblage of twelve related, beautiful heart-breaking stories where a group of characters’ lives converge over the years at distinctive stages of their lives. The narrative progresses between India, Bangladesh, America and Europe. It also includes various subjects like domestic abuse, extramarital affairs, drug addiction, religious conflicts and racism.
This is a book about love; diverse shades of love and the intricacy of relationships. It explains that love doesn’t always result with romance or with a happily ever after. Nor is it as straightforward as being black and white.
The narration is one of its biggest strengths. The prose is straightforward. The author weaves the stories with poems and photographs. Even though the stories don’t follow in a sequential order, it still fits, and the story progresses smoothly.
One of my favourite lines from the book: “The beauty of belonging isn’t that it lasts forever, but that you think it will.”
One needs to read it to understand how magnificent this book is, and I’m glad that I discovered it.
March 13, 2018
I liked that each of the stories was simultaneously interlinked but also stood out on its own as a separate, unique narrative. Enjoyable read.
September 19, 2018
A very simple writing with amazingly deep stories..liked the writing style
December 4, 2020
Abeer Hoque grew up in Bangladesh, Nigeria and the USA. She currently lives in the USA. Her perspective is thus both global and local. Her short stories and poems weave in little details into human life. At the end of the day, the context may be different, but human beings are similar at one level. A book I keep coming back to.
November 9, 2018
The Lovers and the Leavers is a collection of 12 short stories, episodes in the life of characters whose lives are intertwined with each other, sometimes tangentially. These episodes don't follow a chronological order, but are interspersed through time and across the world. Romantic relationships and displacement are the common themes around which most of the stories are focussed.
The protagonists are mostly Bangladeshi or Indian origin women, who are living in a different country and finding their own identities, fighting against their past and looking for love. The stories are relatable, sometimes heartwarming too. The prose is sprinkled with poetry that adds to the experience of reading. It's a good read.
The protagonists are mostly Bangladeshi or Indian origin women, who are living in a different country and finding their own identities, fighting against their past and looking for love. The stories are relatable, sometimes heartwarming too. The prose is sprinkled with poetry that adds to the experience of reading. It's a good read.
January 31, 2016
While I do love my romantic novels, I have to admit lately whatever I have been reading has been almost cliched stories with predictable ends but the streak of reading disappointing romance themed books ended with The Lovers and the Leavers by Abeer Y. Hoque. The title does scream romance and yes the book is all about love but it is not a romantic novel, instead it is a series of short stories that come together in the end.
The book is a web of characters. It starts with the story of a maid who lost her first husband, then her daughter, had a sister who had been a victim human trafficking and is struggling with her position of being the second wife to man she loves alot. Then there is the story of her employer’s divorced friend Nita who is moving back to Bangladesh with her daughter Ila. This story followed by the story of Ila and her friend Rox. We even a get a little insight into the life of Rox and her friend Raza. A few more stories follow these stories and all of them about this crazy mix of personalities connected to each other.
I found The Lovers and the Leavers an amazing read for a lot of reasons. The narration and format of the book....Read Complete Review at http://www.coml13.com/index.php/2015/...
The book is a web of characters. It starts with the story of a maid who lost her first husband, then her daughter, had a sister who had been a victim human trafficking and is struggling with her position of being the second wife to man she loves alot. Then there is the story of her employer’s divorced friend Nita who is moving back to Bangladesh with her daughter Ila. This story followed by the story of Ila and her friend Rox. We even a get a little insight into the life of Rox and her friend Raza. A few more stories follow these stories and all of them about this crazy mix of personalities connected to each other.
I found The Lovers and the Leavers an amazing read for a lot of reasons. The narration and format of the book....Read Complete Review at http://www.coml13.com/index.php/2015/...
July 19, 2016
I simply love it , beautifully written , well crafted characters and sequences.
The love , sorrow , pain , dullness , joy all of it in its most primal and purest form , so much that it gives you an instant high and it hits you hard on the face and makes you admit to everything the author wishes to say.
10 percent hope 30 percent pain and 60 percent love
and 100 percent true.
The love , sorrow , pain , dullness , joy all of it in its most primal and purest form , so much that it gives you an instant high and it hits you hard on the face and makes you admit to everything the author wishes to say.
10 percent hope 30 percent pain and 60 percent love
and 100 percent true.
November 23, 2015
its a nice story
Read
July 8, 2016Sarah's Pick
Call #: HOQUE Abeer
Call #: HOQUE Abeer
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