Tania James

A Novel

Loot

A rice farmer-turned-poacher whose brother has been killed and a documentary filmmaker dedicated to preserving wildlife find their views challenged by the violence of a brutal escaped elephant. By the author of Atlas of Unknowns.

The Tusk that Did the Damage

The author of Atlas of Unknowns presents a collection of stories that explores the yearning and dislocation of characters from various world regions, including a gifted Indian dance instructor who falls victim to her insecurities and a widower who travels Kentucky highways to bury roadkills. 20,000 first printing.

And Other Stories

Aerogrammes

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION • A spellbinding historical novel set in the eighteenth century: a hero’s quest, a love story, the story of a young artist coming of age, and an exuberant heist adventure that traces the bloody legacy of colonialism across two continents and fifty years. “Addictively absorbing.” —The New York Times Book Review This wildly inventive, irresistible feat of storytelling from a writer at the height of her powers is "an expertly-plotted, deeply affecting novel about war, displacement, emigration, and an elusive mechanical tiger" (Maggie O’Farrell, best-selling author of Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait). Abbas is just seventeen years old when his gifts as a woodcarver come to the attention of Tipu Sultan, and he is drawn into service at the palace in order to build a giant tiger automaton for Tipu’s sons, a gift to commemorate their return from British captivity. His fate—and the fate of the wooden tiger he helps create—will mirror the vicissitudes of nations and dynasties ravaged by war across India and Europe. Working alongside the legendary French clockmaker Lucien du Leze, Abbas hones his craft, learns French, and meets Jehanne, the daughter of a French expatriate. When Du Leze is finally permitted to return home to Rouen, he invites Abbas to come along as his apprentice. But by the time Abbas travels to Europe, Tipu’s palace has been looted by British forces, and the tiger automaton has disappeared. To prove himself, Abbas must retrieve the tiger from an estate in the English countryside, where it is displayed in a collection of plundered art.

A novel

Winning a scholarship to a prestigious school in New York, Anju leaves her sister behind in Kerala, India, and enters the elite world of her Hindu American host family.

Atlas of Unknowns

A Vintage Shorts “Short Story Month” Selection Certainly, London at the turn of the twentieth century is home to the world championship of wrestling, but the British wrestlers know nothing of the giant Kikkar Singh, for example, who once uprooted an acacia tree bare-handed, just because it was disrupting his view. They know nothing of pehlwans: they know nothing of the brothers Gama and Imam. The Lion and Panther have come from Lahore to become champions—but first they must find an opponent willing to be faced. “Lion and Panther in London” captures the yearning and dislocation of young men far from home, even as brotherly rivalry fails to disappear—the explosive, warm-hearted first story in Tania James’s acclaimed collection Aerogrammes. An eBook short.

Lion and Panther in London

A wrenching exploration of love and betrayal, duty and loyalty, and the vexed relationship between man and nature—from the acclaimed author of Atlas of Unknowns. • “Impressive … captivating.” —The New York Times Book Review The Tusk That Did the Damage is an utterly contemporary story about an ancient and majestic elephant, and his dangerous connection to the land and the people around him. Orphaned by poachers as a calf and sold into a life of labor, Gravedigger has broken free of his chains and is terrorizing the South Indian countryside. Caught up in the violence are the studious younger son of a rice farmer drawn into the sordid world of poaching; and a young American documentary filmmaker engaged in a risky affair with the veterinarian who is her subject. In three intertwined storylines—one of them narrated by the elephant himself—Tania James crafts a heartbreaking tale of the ivory trade, exploring the porous boundary between conservation and corruption.

The Tusk That Did the Damage

When a young elephant is brutally orphaned by poachers, it is only a matter of time before he begins terrorising the countryside, earning his malevolent name from the humans he kills and then tenderly buries with leaves. Manu, the studious son of a rice farmer, loses his cousin to the Gravedigger and is drawn into the alluring world of ivory hunting. Emma is working on a documentary set in a Kerala wildlife park with her best friend. Her work leads her to witness the porous boundary between conservation and corruption and she finds herself caught up in her own betrayal. As the novel hurtles toward its tragic climax, these three storylines fuse into a wrenching meditation on love and revenge, fact and myth, duty and sacrifice. In a feat of audacious imagination and arrestingly beautiful prose, The Tusk That Did the Damage tells an original and heart-breaking story about how we treat nature, and each other.

Un debut totalmente irresistible: la historia de dos hermanas, el anhelo de desaparecer en otro país y el poderoso deseo de regresar a un mundo conocido. Al cuidado de su padre, un cristiano poco convencido, y su abuela, una mujer de gran carácter que guarda la sabiduría de generaciones, las hermanas Linno y Anju Vallara se crían en un pequeño pueblo de Kerala, en el sudoeste de la India. Linno tiene un talento innato para el dibujo, y Anju, una de las mejores estudiantes de la región, sueña con ir a Estados Unidos. Así que, cuando le ofrecen una beca para estudiar en una exclusiva escuela de Nueva York, no duda un segundo en aceptar, pese a que ello suponga, de cierta forma, traicionar a su hermana. Acogida por una acomodada familia neoyorquina de origen indio, Anju descubrirá un mundo lleno de privilegios y desafíos que hasta entonces nunca había imaginado. Linno, por su parte, vivirá una extraordinaria transformación, apartándose del camino que su padre había dispuesto para ella y valiéndose de su talento artístico para iniciar su propia andadura por la vida. Pero cuando la familia pierde todo contacto con Anju, Linno traza un plan para descubrir el paradero de su hermana menor. Frente a un mapa de la inmensa y desconocida metrópoli, emprenderá un viaje apasionante, un itinerario que la guiará a través de su mundo interior hacia la revelación de un secreto familiar insospechado. Reseñas: «Regala esta novela a alguien; no te equivocarás. Mapa de los lugares sin nombre es condenadamente buena.» Junot Díaz «Una historia perfecta de amor, traición y secretos en dos continentes. [...] Tania James describe Kerala y el Nueva York de los inmigrantes con idéntica confianza y profundidad.» Publishers Weekly «La odisea de una estudiante desde India hasta Estados Unidos y de vuelta a India, un viaje que plantea preguntas esenciales, culturales y personales, sobre la familia, la inmigración y sobre cómo tomar las decisiones acertadas.» Kirkus Reviews «Preciosa [...] Tania James escribecon elegancia, humor y agudeza.» The New York Times Book Review «Deslumbrante y cautivadora [...] Uno de los debuts más brillantes desde Dientes blancos, de Zadie Smith.» San Francisco Chronicle

Mapa de los lugares sin nombre

«Uno dei libri più originali e interessanti che abbia letto negli ultimi anni... Si legge d’un fiato.» JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER Nel Kanavar Wildlife Park, una riserva naturale nel Sud dell’India, in una problematica coabitazione con gli indigeni vivono molti animali protetti. Un giorno la furia dei bracconieri a caccia di avorio si scatena contro un branco di elefanti, risparmiando solo un cucciolo, catturato dopo aver assistito all’uccisione della madre. Dopo anni di cattività l’elefante, divenuto un esemplare enorme e fortissimo, riesce a liberarsi: la scia di sangue e terrore che lascia dietro di sé e la pratica di seppellire le sue vittime sotto rami e terra lo trasformano in una leggenda, facendogli guadagnare il soprannome di Vendicatore. Dalle foreste di querce e magnolie fino alle pianure e ai campi di riso, in molti incroceranno il suo cammino. Fra questi Manu, un ragazzo tranquillo e studioso che si trova coinvolto suo malgrado nella caccia agli elefanti; ed Emma, giovane regista americana che è in India per girare il suo primo film documentario, affascinata dal coraggioso veterinario a capo del progetto di salvaguardia ambientale. Le loro vicende si fondono in un romanzo coinvolgente e maestoso, con un protagonista indimenticabile, divinità e demone al tempo stesso. Una storia di violenza e di lotta per la vita, di amori e tradimenti, lealtà e corruzione, sullo sfondo del rapporto tormentato fra l’uomo e la natura.

L'elefante non dimentica

From the highly acclaimed author of Atlas of Unknowns (“Dazzling . . . One of the most exciting debut novels since Zadie Smith’s White Teeth”—San Francisco Chronicle; “An astonishment of a debut”—Junot Díaz), a bravura collection of short stories set in locales as varied as London, Sierra Leone, and the American Midwest that captures the yearning and dislocation of young men and women around the world. In “Lion and Panther in London,” a turn-of-the-century Indian wrestler arrives in London desperate to prove himself champion of the world, only to find the city mysteriously absent of challengers. In “Light & Luminous,” a gifted dance instructor falls victim to her own vanity when a student competition allows her a final encore. In “The Scriptological Review: A Last Letter from the Editor,” a young man obsessively studies his father’s handwriting in the hope of making sense of his death. And in the marvelous “What to Do with Henry,” a white woman from Ohio takes in the illegitimate child her husband left behind in Sierra Leone, as well as an orphaned chimpanzee who comes to anchor this strange new family. With exuberance and compassion, Tania James once again draws us into the lives of damaged, driven, and beautifully complicated characters who quietly strive for human connection.

Tania James

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