In 1948 on the far-flung post-partition Andaman Islands, botanist Girija Prasad is confronted with the unfamiliar terrain of married life. As he strives to understand his extraordinary bride who speaks to the trees he studies, he comes to learn too of the precarious geology of his beloved island home. Their happiness rests on a Faultline, and when change comes it is instant and devastating. Events will take us from islands to mainland, from sea to mountains through a chain reaction of people and places, each affecting the next, each of them searching, longing for something lost.
Shubhangi Swarup’s Latitudes Of Longing is a rare find indeed. An immersive read, the prose is lush and vivid, the trajectory original, the research evidently detailed, though very lightly worn. I come away with the impression the author could – indeed would – talk happily at length on the geology, history, botany or ethnography of this region. There is a palpable love of her subject that thrums in these pages where the world we live in is a much a character in the list of players as any of the people we meet along the way.
As you might expect from the title it’s a bit of a devastating read, though for all its heart-breaking moments there is something joyous about it. It’s something I find hard to pin down. It’s not that it’s uplifting as such, more that it’s persistent, that the joy is there to be found, that there are wonders in this life, if we only take the trouble to find them.
Of the four sections it’s the first, Girija and Chanda’s story, that really shines. Shubhangi Swarup seems to revel in her characters and the setting with lush and emotional writing. Past and present, fantastical and quotidian blend in a way I found reminiscent of Salman Rushdie as the author guides us through a truly epic sweep of history. For all it’s a human story we’re watching unfold, the landscape is always there and it’s in this that the prose finds its tremulous air. With the explosive backdrop of history as geography you never quite feel sure in your footing, disaster lurking a mere paragraph away.
Shubhangi Swarup’s Latitudes Of Longing is lush and lyrical, a heart-breaker and a joy-bringer. It’s a world – our world – to get lost in. Do yourself a favour and take the time.
Latitudes Of Longing was published by riverrun on the 19th May 2020 ISBN:9781529405132
You can find Shubhangi on Twitter @shubhangisapien
My particular thanks to Ana McLaughlin for allowing me to review this lovely book.
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