After penning two notable non-fictions, 'Remnants of a Separation' and 'In the Language of Remembering', author Aanchal Malhotra is all set to try her hands in writing a novel. Titled 'The Book of Everlasting Things', this is a love story which is set in the backdrop of the 1947 India-Pakistan Partition. The story is said to be a tale of love and loss, memory, and place.
Talking about her debut novel, Aanchal Malhotra said in a statement, “'The Book of Everlasting Things' is a novel about two families – one of perfumers and the other of calligraphers – entwined in each others’ lives for nearly a century by way of friendship, artistry, memory, war, betrayal, guilt, longing, exile, and above all, love. Navigating battlefields and flower fields, olfactory and amorous impulses, it is a book guided by the senses."
She further shared, "Since the spring of 2017, this novel has consumed me; its characters often feeling more real than reality itself, its landscape built from borrowed, researched, and dreamt up terrains. Writing it has been a demanding yet infinitely rewarding process."
'The Book of Everlasting Things' will be published HarperCollins on December 27, 2022.
Commenting on the upcoming novel, Udayan Mitra, Executive Publisher- HarperCollins India, said in a press release, “An event that shapes the narrative of Aanchal Malhotra’s remarkable first novel is that of Partition: and its memories cast their shadow over the novel, just as they have over the shared histories of the subcontinent and the lives of so many individuals. The scope and span of 'The Book of Everlasting Things' is ambitious and epic – it is a powerful and engaging saga that builds on the fascinating history of modern South Asia.”
