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House of Caravans
Lahore, British India. 1943. As World War rages, resentment of colonial rule grows, and with it acts of rebellion. Animated by idealistic dreams of an independent India, Chhote Nanu agrees to plant a bomb intended for the British superintendent of police. Some four years later, following a torturous imprisonment, Chhote flees the city as it descends into violence. Carrying the young son of his murdered wife through scenes of unspeakable bloodshed, he encounters his brother, Barre Nanu, the two of them caught between a vanishing past in the new nation of Pakistan and a profoundly uncertain future in India.
Kanpur, India. 2002. Following the death of his grandfather, Barre Nanu, Karan Khati returns from New York to join his sister in their childhood home, which has been transformed by the embittered Chhote Nanu into a hostel for Hindu pilgrims. When their mother arrives from Delhi, Karan and Ila learn that their fathers were two different men—one Hindu, one Muslim—relationships with both of whom were doomed by familial bias and prejudice, the siblings resolve to reconnect, and to understand the painful twist and turns in the family’s story.
Moving back and forth from the tumultuous years surrounding Partition to the era of renewed global sectarianism following 9/11, this extraordinary historical novel, “Tolstoyan in its scope” (Ha Jin), portrays a family and nations divided by the living legacy of colonialism. Richly evocative and enduringly timely, House of Caravans carries “all the emotional heft of the best literature.” (Celeste Ng)
Kanpur, India. 2002. Following the death of his grandfather, Barre Nanu, Karan Khati returns from New York to join his sister in their childhood home, which has been transformed by the embittered Chhote Nanu into a hostel for Hindu pilgrims. When their mother arrives from Delhi, Karan and Ila learn that their fathers were two different men—one Hindu, one Muslim—relationships with both of whom were doomed by familial bias and prejudice, the siblings resolve to reconnect, and to understand the painful twist and turns in the family’s story.
Moving back and forth from the tumultuous years surrounding Partition to the era of renewed global sectarianism following 9/11, this extraordinary historical novel, “Tolstoyan in its scope” (Ha Jin), portrays a family and nations divided by the living legacy of colonialism. Richly evocative and enduringly timely, House of Caravans carries “all the emotional heft of the best literature.” (Celeste Ng)
318 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 19, 2023
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648 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
February 9, 2024
An intricate, riveting family saga following a split family as they navigate decades of tumultuous political and personal conflicts. Covering topics such as The Partition, post colonialism, prejudices, and violence, House of Caravans asks: what does it mean to make a home? Why do people place so much emphasis on drawing borders? What does it mean to forgive? Sweeping in its cinematic prose, this novel is an ode to love against the odds, and walking the fractured lines of history towards reconciliation.
September 9, 2023
Shilpi Suneja has done an amazing job with this story, which straddles two tenuous time periods affecting modern-day South Asians, the Partition of India and Pakistan and the post-9/11 time period.
In this story, we read about multiple generations that grapple with what it means to love in a world of hate and sectarian violence.
The story of the two brothers, Chote Nanu and Barre Nanu loving those of different religions during Partition really made me think. Likewise, the story of the brothers‘ descendent, Karan, who deals with the effects of hate in 2002 New York.
I left with one thought in my mind: what’s the point of all the violence? At the end of the day, we are each one of us are human. Hate is unnecessary. The House of Caravans really impressed this point in me.
Overall, just breathtaking. I can’t wait to read what Ms. Suneja writes next.
In this story, we read about multiple generations that grapple with what it means to love in a world of hate and sectarian violence.
The story of the two brothers, Chote Nanu and Barre Nanu loving those of different religions during Partition really made me think. Likewise, the story of the brothers‘ descendent, Karan, who deals with the effects of hate in 2002 New York.
I left with one thought in my mind: what’s the point of all the violence? At the end of the day, we are each one of us are human. Hate is unnecessary. The House of Caravans really impressed this point in me.
Overall, just breathtaking. I can’t wait to read what Ms. Suneja writes next.
September 18, 2023
" What's wrong with having a national drink?
What's wrong? About the same as having a national language or a national religion. You should be suspect of a national anything."
Tremendously satisfying and moving story of one family over three generations divided by new borders and religious conflict. I can't recommend this novel enough! This book will deepen your understanding of current geopolitical division and provides an important account of 1947 Partition. It is rich with history and place, and full of moments that will break your heart.
There are two sibling pairs that anchor this book - Barre Nanu and Chhote Nanu; and Ila and Karan (my favorites!) Ila and Karan are incredibly relatable as they bear the weight of their family's past as well as their own grudges, sibling jealousy and frustrations with their mother. Still, when it matters they try to support each other: "Losing our childhood home was fusing us together. We had nowhere to go, together. We could rotate our visits to each other's rooms like bees pollinating flowers. We had to let go of our beehive."
What's wrong? About the same as having a national language or a national religion. You should be suspect of a national anything."
Tremendously satisfying and moving story of one family over three generations divided by new borders and religious conflict. I can't recommend this novel enough! This book will deepen your understanding of current geopolitical division and provides an important account of 1947 Partition. It is rich with history and place, and full of moments that will break your heart.
There are two sibling pairs that anchor this book - Barre Nanu and Chhote Nanu; and Ila and Karan (my favorites!) Ila and Karan are incredibly relatable as they bear the weight of their family's past as well as their own grudges, sibling jealousy and frustrations with their mother. Still, when it matters they try to support each other: "Losing our childhood home was fusing us together. We had nowhere to go, together. We could rotate our visits to each other's rooms like bees pollinating flowers. We had to let go of our beehive."
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December 1, 2023The unique relationship between siblings takes center stage in Shilpi Suneja’s "House of Caravans.” The story unfolds with the introduction of two brothers, Chhote Nanu and Barre Nanu, whose lives diverge dramatically against the backdrop of pre-independence India. Chhote Nanu, a dreamy poet, becomes entangled in political dissent, while his elder brother, Barre Nanu, embraces the new British influence. When Chhote Nanu's actions lead him to prison, he clings to fleeting moments of hope hidden within messages delivered by a servant from a mysterious "market woman,” forging a love story that is equally beautiful and tragic. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to his brother, Barre Nanu tries to secure Chhote Nanu's release while safeguarding his family’s honor and beliefs. However, Barre Nanu’s carefully preserved world threatens to unravel.
In a parallel narrative set in 2002, two siblings reunite amid grief, piecing together their origins in a place they can no longer call home. Their connections with Chhote Nanu and Barre Nanu's story underscore how the actions of the past reverberate into the present, linking pain, resentment, unspeakable loss, and unspoken love in delicate ways. Through intricate dualities, Suneja speaks to a desire to belong and familial connections in a land grappling with its identity crisis.
Suneja’s characters are intricately carved, harboring deep desires, unwavering loyalty to family and country, and resilience. "House of Caravans" is a poignant exploration of enduring sibling bonds and the profound impact of political upheaval on their lives. It serves as a testament to the lengths individuals will go to uncover the truth amidst a backdrop of conflicting loyalties, resulting in a story that is both captivating and thought-provoking.
In a parallel narrative set in 2002, two siblings reunite amid grief, piecing together their origins in a place they can no longer call home. Their connections with Chhote Nanu and Barre Nanu's story underscore how the actions of the past reverberate into the present, linking pain, resentment, unspeakable loss, and unspoken love in delicate ways. Through intricate dualities, Suneja speaks to a desire to belong and familial connections in a land grappling with its identity crisis.
Suneja’s characters are intricately carved, harboring deep desires, unwavering loyalty to family and country, and resilience. "House of Caravans" is a poignant exploration of enduring sibling bonds and the profound impact of political upheaval on their lives. It serves as a testament to the lengths individuals will go to uncover the truth amidst a backdrop of conflicting loyalties, resulting in a story that is both captivating and thought-provoking.
December 12, 2023
This is a truly stunning debut. It begins in the thick of the action, leaving a breadcrumb trail to follow through decades and generations. As we do, we journey through the tragedies of colonialism, the chaos of Partition, and the expulsions and separations that ensued. This is a family saga of loss and grief, but also of life, adaptability, sheer will, and strength of many varieties. There is much suffering and no one escapes unscathed, only alive. Here is a bit of balm for our messy postcolonial times, for the divisions of faith and the displacement of peoples that continue unabated. 4.5 stars if I could.
March 11, 2024
The wonderful writing with vivid and unique phrases hooked me immediately into the story.
Which sets the family, due to a death, to gather in India in 2002, while the events that occurred in the years 1943-1947 lead to the family consequences.
I admired the characters strength, felt their losses celebrated their loves, gave thanks to their varied true friendships, and wept over the pain, agony and cruelty because of India's war and unrest.
Beautifully told.
Which sets the family, due to a death, to gather in India in 2002, while the events that occurred in the years 1943-1947 lead to the family consequences.
I admired the characters strength, felt their losses celebrated their loves, gave thanks to their varied true friendships, and wept over the pain, agony and cruelty because of India's war and unrest.
Beautifully told.
June 2, 2025
Really a 3 1/2. The details of Partition between India and Pakistan are powerful and resonate with so much modern history. Not all the characters feel totally real, especially the more modern. Yet, the family saga carries one along.
May 24, 2025
moving and educational
I didn’t know much about the brutality of this. In Indian in Pakistani history. The story told two prominent families or two brothers on their separate families was shocking and painful. The author, shall be Sonja, has done enough good job of creating characters that move us and she reveals a political solution that is shocking and violent. Nonetheless, the book exudes tenderness and keeps us reading until the story, fully unfolds.
I didn’t know much about the brutality of this. In Indian in Pakistani history. The story told two prominent families or two brothers on their separate families was shocking and painful. The author, shall be Sonja, has done enough good job of creating characters that move us and she reveals a political solution that is shocking and violent. Nonetheless, the book exudes tenderness and keeps us reading until the story, fully unfolds.
August 24, 2024
To be honest this was one of my least favourite historical novels so far. On the one hand, neither plot nor characters captivated me as they remained too flat and predictable. On the other hand (ir rsther as a consequence), the representation of the touchy and complex event of Partition is too simplistic. To give an example, despite internal focalisation and access to the characters' thoughts and feelings, the reader rarely gets a chance to actually know how the horrible things they experience (from torture to death to migration) affect them personally or what thoughts or feelings or actions Partition provokes in them.
While there are many interesting historical facts and it is interesting to contrast this Partition novel with other examples of the genre, I definitely do not recommend it if you're looking for innovative, creative writing or a complex, nuanced look at Partition. If you have never read anything about Partition or the Indian subcontinent, you may use it as a starting point (but only if you continue reading other novels afterwards ;-)).
While there are many interesting historical facts and it is interesting to contrast this Partition novel with other examples of the genre, I definitely do not recommend it if you're looking for innovative, creative writing or a complex, nuanced look at Partition. If you have never read anything about Partition or the Indian subcontinent, you may use it as a starting point (but only if you continue reading other novels afterwards ;-)).
January 7, 2026
A piece of historical fiction from a time and place I haven't read about before. While I've read books set in both India and Pakistan, before and after Partition, I think this is the first I read that occurs right before and during Partition itself. These two Hindu brothers, who lived in harmony in Lahore, faced other hardships due to Britain's colonization, including one who is imprisoned for a failed (and kind of lame) assassination attempt. This is juxtaposed with siblings who live in India and are soon to be kicked out of their uncle's house. This touches on so many universal family issues as well as love between two of different religions. But at it's heart, it's about how the feeling of displacement continues to haunt those who are forced to leave.
January 15, 2024
Shocking historical fiction of the partition of India and Pakistan after 300 years of British rule. The story is told through two main characters who are Hindu brothers living in what will become Muslim Pakistan. The story describes the almost indescribable hardship of the partition for them, their families and almost everyone they come in contact with. Not a sugar coated Gandhian rendition of events, but some insight into the savagery and eventually the reconciliation of this hardship. Highly recommended.
March 15, 2024
An epic novel of India's transition from British colonial rule to the separate nations of Pakistan and India, the divide between Muslims and Hindus, and the killings and property loss that happened during those changes.
But it is also a love story, a brotherhood broken by misunderstandings, and alternating flash forwards over 50 years to the surviving lives, and the next generations. I found it best to read in two days in order to track the many characters.
Beautifully done.
But it is also a love story, a brotherhood broken by misunderstandings, and alternating flash forwards over 50 years to the surviving lives, and the next generations. I found it best to read in two days in order to track the many characters.
Beautifully done.
April 22, 2025
A moving and evocative family saga, paralleling the lives of two brothers in the years just before and after the partition of India and Pakistan after the dissolution of British India in 1947, with the lives of their descendants in 2002. This novel is a gripping and touching piece of storytelling that captures the essence of what a family means in a tumultuous era.
July 31, 2025
One family feels the ripple effects of Partition for generations after India and Pakistan are cleaved in 1947.
Reminiscent of Zadie Smith's White Teeth in its structure and themes, Suneja's debut novel splits its pages between two politically turbulent eras.
One narrative thread follows Barre Nanu and Chhote Nanu, a pair of Hindu brothers, as they deal with the consequences of a misguided bomb plot and an illicit romance in Lahore amid the sunset of the British Empire. With World War II raging, many Indians have begun to chafe against colonial rule, Chhote Nanu among them. His revolutionary aspirations are complicated by his love for the beautiful Nigar Jaan, a Muslim sex worker of mixed Indian and English heritage, but he still follows through on an attempt to assassinate a cruel police superintendent. Backfiring, the scheme fails to kill the superintendent and sends Chhote Nanu to jail for nearly two and a half years.
Following his release in 1946, Partition plunges the region into chaos and turns Lahore into a Pakistani territory, stranding Barre Nanu and Chhote Nanu on the wrong side of the border. Witnessing horrors as violence against Hindus intensifies, they fight to escape a country they can no longer call their own.
Six decades after Chhote Nanu's imprisonment began in 1943, New York City graduate student Karan Khatri returns to his hometown, the Indian city of Kanpur, for the first time in six years after his sister sends word that Barre Nanu, their grandfather, has died. In the wake of 9/11, long-standing tensions between Hindus and Muslims have flared up in the United States, reminding Karan and his friends that they are welcome in some worlds but not in others.
In addition to paying his respects to Barre Nanu, Karan has another reason for making the trip to Kanpur: He wants to know more about his parentage. While his mother has always told him that he and his sister were fathered by a Muslim man and a Hindu man, respectively, she has disclosed few other details, seemingly reluctant to do so. Family secrets come to the fore and old wounds reopen as Karan and his sister search for answers.
A moving evocation of life before, during, and after Partition and the past's immeasurable impact on the present.
Reminiscent of Zadie Smith's White Teeth in its structure and themes, Suneja's debut novel splits its pages between two politically turbulent eras.
One narrative thread follows Barre Nanu and Chhote Nanu, a pair of Hindu brothers, as they deal with the consequences of a misguided bomb plot and an illicit romance in Lahore amid the sunset of the British Empire. With World War II raging, many Indians have begun to chafe against colonial rule, Chhote Nanu among them. His revolutionary aspirations are complicated by his love for the beautiful Nigar Jaan, a Muslim sex worker of mixed Indian and English heritage, but he still follows through on an attempt to assassinate a cruel police superintendent. Backfiring, the scheme fails to kill the superintendent and sends Chhote Nanu to jail for nearly two and a half years.
Following his release in 1946, Partition plunges the region into chaos and turns Lahore into a Pakistani territory, stranding Barre Nanu and Chhote Nanu on the wrong side of the border. Witnessing horrors as violence against Hindus intensifies, they fight to escape a country they can no longer call their own.
Six decades after Chhote Nanu's imprisonment began in 1943, New York City graduate student Karan Khatri returns to his hometown, the Indian city of Kanpur, for the first time in six years after his sister sends word that Barre Nanu, their grandfather, has died. In the wake of 9/11, long-standing tensions between Hindus and Muslims have flared up in the United States, reminding Karan and his friends that they are welcome in some worlds but not in others.
In addition to paying his respects to Barre Nanu, Karan has another reason for making the trip to Kanpur: He wants to know more about his parentage. While his mother has always told him that he and his sister were fathered by a Muslim man and a Hindu man, respectively, she has disclosed few other details, seemingly reluctant to do so. Family secrets come to the fore and old wounds reopen as Karan and his sister search for answers.
A moving evocation of life before, during, and after Partition and the past's immeasurable impact on the present.
February 19, 2024
This was such a good novel about what happened when Pakistan and India divided and how it upended so much. Well done.
July 1, 2024
House of Caravans is an expertly written, moving, and captivating novel. Probably one of my top five favorite books.
July 3, 2024
Really loved this book. Definitely learned a lot
May 11, 2025
A good read all over, however, poorly researched. Some facts about religions are incorrect.
September 25, 2025
loved this book, highly highly recommend! I really appreciated how Shilpi seamlessly transitions between distinct stories across the family generations and draws parallels between them. By the end of the book, she beautifully shows how these different (and interwoven) threads all converge to the present.
December 1, 2023
One of the things I think I learned way too little about in school was the incredible historical importance of The Partition. It’s such a momentous event, and it’s become a subject I’m really drawn to in fiction. Which is why I was excited about this book, which starts promisingly with two parallel tracks: in one, a pair of brothers is miraculously reunited as they flee the newly-created Pakistan to India, while in the other the grandchildren of one of those brothers are reunited when one returns to India from several years in America in the wake of 9/11. As to be expected in this sort of book, relationships (particularly but not exclusively romantic relationships) between Muslims and Hindus are central to the narrative, with love being just one of the things that is achingly, irrevocably sundered along with India and Pakistan themselves. Ultimately I don’t think the parallel narratives serve the story particularly well: the historical one is much more compelling and I never liked leaving it to return to the modern one, which doesn’t feel like it has a lot of direction. The historical one is also where virtually all of the interesting character developments happen, with the modern characters never really feeling like actual people as much as ideas about what people could be. There’s promise here, but the structure really cheats it of momentum in a way that it just couldn’t recover from for me.
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