Name: Jiji's review of Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree
Item: Tomb of Sand
Rating: 5
Author: Jiji

Geetanjali Shree

In northern India, an eighty-year-old woman slips into a deep depression at the death of her husband, then resurfaces to gain a new lease on life. Her determination to fly in the face of convention – including striking up a friendship with a hijra person – confuses her bohemian daughter, who is used to thinking of herself as the more 'modern' of the two.

To her family’s consternation, Ma insists on travelling to Pakistan, simultaneously confronting the unresolved trauma of her teenage experiences of Partition, and re-evaluating what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman, a feminist.

Rather than respond to tragedy with seriousness, Geetanjali Shree's playful tone and exuberant wordplay results in a book that is engaging, funny, and utterly original, at the same time as being an urgent and timely protest against the destructive impact of borders and boundaries, whether between religions, countries, or genders.

Translated by Daisy Rockwell

Tomb of Sand

रेत समाधि

Jiji

Being sick of one's self is worse than being sick of anything else. The absolute worst. Others are at least other. You can get away from them, for good or for a couple of hours.

Ek muddat se teri yaad bhi aayi na hamen, aur ham bhul gae hon tujhe aisa bhi nahin

I have not thought of you for ages, but it's not as though I've forgotten you either.

A playful, feminist, and utterly original epic set in contemporary northern India, about a family and the inimitable octogenarian matriarch at its heart.

“A tale tells itself. It can be complete, but also incomplete, the way all tales are. This particular tale has a border and women who come and go as they please. Once you’ve got women and a border, a story can write itself . . .”

Eighty-year-old Ma slips into a deep depression after the death of her husband. Despite her family’s cajoling, she refuses to leave her bed. Her responsible eldest son, Bade, and dutiful, Reebok-sporting daughter-in-law, Bahu, attend to Ma’s every need, while her favorite grandson, the cheerful and gregarious Sid, tries to lift her spirits with his guitar. But it is only after Sid’s younger brother—Serious Son, a young man pathologically incapable of laughing—brings his grandmother a sparkling golden cane covered with butterflies that things begin to change.

With a new lease on life thanks to the cane’s seemingly magical powers, Ma gets out of bed and embarks on a series of adventures that baffle even her unconventional feminist daughter, Beti. She ditches her cumbersome saris, develops a close friendship with a hijra, and sets off on a fateful journey that will turn the family’s understanding of themselves upside down.

Rich with fantastical elements, folklore, and exuberant wordplay, Geetanjali Shree’s magnificent novel explores timely and timeless topics, including Buddhism, global warming, feminism, Partition, gender binary, transcending borders, and the profound joys of life. Elegant, heartbreaking, and funny, it is a literary masterpiece that marks the American debut of an extraordinary writer.

Translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell

tomb of sand is brilliant and layered, with powerful themes of grief, identity, and partition, but it drags far too long. it is often weighed down by a dull pace, leaving the story feeling far stretched.

saaral

i had this 740 page book on my coffee table for several weeks, slowly reading a chapter here and there, always interesting but not the right time and mind and place i guess. but now suddenly the time was right and i basically read last 400 pages in the last three days. absolutely incredible book!

Tejas Sanap

Imagine being a child who brings their old and feeble parent into their house, to take care of them, to give them a space of freedom in their old age. Imagine being a child who has successfully escaped the shadow of their parents, extended family and the society at large. But, when you start living with your parent again, you realize that you are actually on the path to become exactly like them, you never escaped anybody's shadow or expectations. Just when you have hit the floor, after being shaken by this realisation, you see your parent changing, the destination has moved again and the more time you spend with them, the more you realize that you can never become like them, become as free as they are. Then, the final arc, your parent decides to go on a journey, and you are to tag along, this journey shows you that you are not the main character of any story, everything that you consider "new" and "modern" has happened before and that you have been treating the past with the same ignorance, that you have always felt the past treat the present with.

Welcome to the Tomb of Sand, perhaps better described as the "samadhi" for tales that never end.

Jesse Morley

I'm not usually one to balk at long novels, but I would have enjoyed this one a lot more had it been around a third of the length. I'd be happy on one level to see someone pull out a cleaver and produce a bastardised version, leaving the narrative framework that a western reader would feel safest with and leaving dense and unfamiliar modes of address, stories and references in a messy heap on the floor, but I'd know somehow that the true heart of the novel would be left there with the offal.

I couldn't find peace with the seemingly redundant meta-commentary. "There's no harm in starting the story right here, that is, the way we're doing it right now," it's stated early on. "Not much need be said about [whomever/whatever], as the story doesn't really concern [them/it]," begging the question of why this subject was dragged up in the first place. These explicit goiters of inefficiency, as George Saunders might refer to them, layered on frustration for me that was not shaken off by any later re-incorporation or reveal.

I am grateful for the exposure to themes of partition, despite the opening of part three being maybe the most lost I've ever been reading a book.

I wanted more on Bahu and her Reeboks.

Shannan Mann

Diane Wang

Elena Kuran

WINNER OF THE 2022 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE A playful, feminist, and utterly original epic set in contemporary northern India, about a family and the inimitable octogenarian matriarch at its heart. "A tale tells itself. It can be complete, but also incomplete, the way all tales are. This particular tale has a border and women who come and go as they please. Once you've got women and a border, a story can write itself . . ." Eighty-year-old Ma slips into a deep depression after the death of her husband. Despite her family's cajoling, she refuses to leave her bed. Her responsible eldest son, Bade, and dutiful, Reebok-sporting daughter-in-law, Bahu, attend to Ma's every need, while her favorite grandson, the cheerful and gregarious Sid, tries to lift her spirits with his guitar. But it is only after Sid's younger brother--Serious Son, a young man pathologically incapable of laughing--brings his grandmother a sparkling golden cane covered with butterflies that things begin to change. With a new lease on life thanks to the cane's seemingly magical powers, Ma gets out of bed and embarks on a series of adventures that baffle even her unconventional feminist daughter, Beti. She ditches her cumbersome saris, develops a close friendship with a hijra, and sets off on a fateful journey that will turn the family's understanding of themselves upside down. Rich with fantastical elements, folklore, and exuberant wordplay, Geetanjali Shree's magnificent novel explores timely and timeless topics, including Buddhism, global warming, feminism, Partition, gender binary, transcending borders, and the profound joys of life. Elegant, heartbreaking, and funny, it is a literary masterpiece that marks the American debut of an extraordinary writer. Translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell Author's name pronounced: Ghee-TAHN-juh-lee Shree

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