This meditative book about our planet and its ability to adapt and weather all manner of disruption and change came into my life at a time when the fears of surviving in an increasingly unlivable and sinking city threatened to overwhelm me. A heavily industrialised city about to lose its lungs, that I share in common with the author, I might add. By book's close, thankfully, I was reminded of the resilience of this place we call Earth, our Terra Mater. Our time here will be but a chapter in the story of the world while it persists and endures long after us. We destroy ourselves—but this magnificent pale blue dot? It's here to stay, to remain a realm of infinite possibilities.

These four overlapping stories by Shubhangi Swarup, with their colourful characters, together perform a paean in honour of this diverse home that we inhabit. With lyrical prose, she takes us through the Andaman islands, the Burmese fault line, Nepali back-alleys, and the snowscape of Kashmir and Ladakh, albeit at a languid (dare I say, orogenic) pace. Straddling multiple timelines, the chaos theory of our lives reflects itself upon the geography of these lands, too, emphasising the fundamental interconnections between all things. And her lush descriptions will make you want to appreciate these places for yourself, to go back in time and experience all of their raw, untapped beauty.

The opening chapter is the strongest, with a touch of magical realism and stunning sentences that demand veneration from the reader as you admire the landscape so rich with flora and fauna, each with a unique evolutionary history. The deeper I sank into the story of Girija Prasad, I could feel the work of Shubhangi's deft hand, bringing forth the majesty of island life, newly freed of colonial yoke—slowly and carefully, as if polishing a diamond. She ties the islands to the prisons of Burma in predictable yet no less remarkable fashion. Here we meet the orphan Plato and read a familiar tale, of political persecution in the fledgling republics that were only recently serfs to foreign empires. The slight shift in tonality was surprising but welcome, with vivid characters in a book with otherwise fragmentary, almost mythical archetypes.

My sympathies then to an ambitious writer who is clearly full of ideas, and even more so, of love and awe for the natural world and people attempting to live in harmony with it. Sympathies, in lieu of disappointment, that the disparate threads were braided together in a contrived manner, as often happens when the scope of the creation becomes larger than the creator. The last two chapters are a tectonic departure from what came before; here, the interrelations are misshapen pieces in a puzzle. There is closure in solving such a one, but not quite. It feels clumsy, rushed and lacks the lustre that preceded it: a conclusion unworthy of the characters populating the denouement and of the continuation of our human legacy that they represent.

Sympathies and encouragement, for it is impressive, nevertheless, that this imaginative, well-researched and eloquent story, featuring the Earth as its protagonist, is the writer's debut. With it, she has added the Indian subcontinent, its lakes, glaciers and mountains, to the growing catalogue of climate fiction. The future will bring much finesse and precision to her mind and pen. A woman who doesn't miss the forest for the trees; an author to watch out for, indeed: "All evolution is guided by the primordial instinct. The one that set us free to explore the uncertain geographies of longing, only to stumble upon the bliss of mortality. The instinct leads us all to the primordial lake. Floating as uncomplicated single cells, waiting for life itself to cease."

2.5 rounding up

It was very lyrical and beautiful but it wasn’t really my type of read. I found it hard to stay connected.

Latitudes of Longing is a book that is beautiful and lyrical, something that is read and savoured slowly to fully immerse oneself in this journey; a journey that spans a few decades or thousands of years? We must find out ourselves.

The story follows the life of Girija Prasad, a man and a scientist in Andaman Islands in the newly independent India. It talks of the inhabitants in this place and the surrounding environment. Nature or to be more specific “Earth” is the binding as well as connecting link in this book; we go from Islands to Fault-lines that is Burma(Myanmar) with Its Civil war and military regime, we follow the freedom and imprisonment of one Plato, his mother..... we go to the mountains and then to the glaciers, a place where the most primitive of tribes show wisdom surpassing the brightest of minds....

I am having a hard time writing about what I think of the book and it’s essence. Know this: it’s wonderful and I would love for everyone looks it up and read it!

2.5 stars

'latitudes of longing' certainly isn't a bad book (could any book with as beautiful of a title be bad?) but i just really couldn't get into it. such a broad scope of themes and historical realities and geographic events are all put into 300 pages of four short stories, and despite all being connected all the stories were equally so disjointed and the jumps of perspective felt really jarring to me.

i think the first story was the most poignant to me, and with each following story my disinterest kept growing which is why it took me like two weeks to read. forcing myself through the last 70 pages, which weren't 'bad' i just didn't really connect anymore, i think the scope of this book is too large for what it actually is?

there is certainly some beautiful prose written by swarup and i really connected to the characters and ideas in the first story, i just found my interest waning. i also though there'd be more turtle :(

Shubhangi Swarup's debut novel Latitudes of Longing is a gorgeously written set of four loosely interlinked novellas, all concerned with the ways in which we humans connect to our planet. Starting with Islands, and moving on to Faultline, Valley, and Snow Desert, each section focuses on a character or couple and explores their relationships with each other and with the terrain. We spend time with couple in the first section, Gijira Prasad and Chanda Devi in the Islands, and then the story moves to the Faultline via their maid, Mary, who travels to Burma to find her son who is a political prisoner. In Burma we then meet the son's best friend, Thapa. Thapa's story is told in. Valley, and then his smuggling career leads us to a distant village in Snow Desert, where we hear a tale of love in old age.
While I enjoyed the relaying of the tales - and LOVED the lush writing about the natural world, the themes and story line didn't carry all the way through, and the ending fell a little flat for me. Latitudes of Longing is, however, one of my favorite reads this year, and I still laugh at the thought of a ghost billy goat. Worth a read for the descriptions of the islands alone.