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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
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THE PARTED EARTH

Anjali Enjeti

A cross between Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins and Tatiana De Rosnay's Sarah's Key, and for fans of , Anjali Enjeti's debut novel is a heartfelt and human portrait of the long shadow cast by India's partition - across three generations of women, and across continents.
The story begins in New Delhi in August 1947, as 16-year-old Deepa navigates the changing politics of her home, finding solace in messages of intricate origami from her secret boyfriend Amir. Soon Amir flees with his family to Pakistan and a tragedy forces Deepa to leave the subcontinent forever.

The story also begin 60 years later and half a world away, in Atlanta. Deepa's granddaughter Shan, recovering from a devastating miscarriage and the implosion of her marriage, starts the search for her estranged grandmother, a prickly woman who had no interest in knowing her. When she begins to piece together her family history, Shan discovers how little she actually knows about her past.

The Parted Earth follows its entrancing characters on their search for identity after loss uproots their lives and it so powerfully illustrates how it can often take a lifetime to find unity, and peace.

ANJALI ENJETI is an award-winning journalist, activist, and a well-known book critic. The Parted Earth is her debut novel. Anjali has written for the Washington Post, Newsday, The Nation, Longreads, The Georgia Review, Guernica, Al Jazeera, and The Paris Review. The book is part of the Cold Mountain Fund Series, in partnership with Charles Frazier and it's releasing during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
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Published 2021-05-01 by Hub City Press

Comments

A deeply affecting novel about the ways in which the fates of individuals and the sub-continent itself were fractured by Partition as well as the magic by which we find our way back to ourselves and each other through time and space.

Former attorney, journalist, and activist Anjali Enjeti makes an auspicious fiction debut with The Parted Earth, which spans almost fifty years to explore the influence of India's partition on three generations of women. Enjeti has been very open on social media about the difficulties she faced in getting this story told, but it proves more than worth the wait. Read more...

In these opening pages are the intimate hatreds, schisms and eruptions of bloodshed familiar from Partition fiction, from Khushwant Singh's "Train to Pakistan" to Amit Majmudar's "Partitions." ...(T)he novel widens to explore[s] the effects the violence and forced migration of Partition have had on later generations oppressed, as one character puts it, with "a burden that isn't yours, that flows through your blood." ... "The Parted Earth" is about both firsthand trauma and inherited trauma, and it's galvanized by the modern belief that recovery and remembrance can help to restore what history has broken. Read more...

When the puzzle pieces come together... it's both a bittersweet relief and an opportunity for reflection on the complexity of interfaith relationships, the cost of sacrifice and what it means to be home.

Carrying the Stories of our Ancestors: A comversation with Anhali Enjeti Read more...

The pulse of truth... makes this book feel so urgent and important. Illuminating, absorbing, and resonant. Read more...

Enjeti does not spare her readers the bloody details of Partition: families torn apart, as well as vandalism, arson and other forms of violence. Her narrative urges readers to bear witness to this difficult episode of history. But, like her characters, Enjeti ultimately reaches for hope. The Parted Earth is a testament to the tremendous strength of the people of India and Pakistan who found the courage to begin again Read more...

In this captivating, far-reaching debut, Anjali Enjeti brings to life one family's decades-long search for love, peace and a place to call home.

This intergenerational account of remembering and reconciliation sits comfortably alongside works of its kind. Read more...

Author Anjali Enjeti reckons with Asian American identity in white-dominant culture Read more...

GOOD MORNING AMERICA "Who is Making Asian American Pacific Islander History in 2021: The GMA Inspiration List"... - Tanuja Desai Hidier nominates Urooj Arshad, Anjali Enjeti, Valarie Kaur, Thenmozhi Soundararajan and Paula Yoo: For the last four critical years, author, teacher and organizer (co-founder of the Georgia chapter of South Asian Democrats organization They See Blue) Anjali Enjeti has been a tireless force in helping get the vote out in Georgia's AAPI community. Anjali also served on Georgia's AAPI leadership council for the Biden-Harris campaign. And managed to write two super books along the way, hot off the press this spring: "Southbound" (personal essays on her social justice awakening) and her sweeping Partition-set debut novel, "Parted Earth." Read more...

Political Power: Anjali Enjeti Interviewed by Madhushree Ghosh Read more...

This emotional novel takes place over different time periods on three continents with many appealing, interlinked characters and often tragic subplots. The character-driven aspects of the book are very well done, while it is lean on the geopolitical, military and, historical details of the 1947 partition, which resulted in more than a million deaths and millions more refugees. The theme of intergenerational disruption of families and homes is shared by many current novels, and I am sure readers will treasure this dramatic and well-crafted book. Read more...

Writer, teacher, and organizer Anjali Enjeti discusses what you can come to know about yourself when building communities and writing books. Read more...

An epic novel of home and homeland, family and community, love and betrayal. In Anjali Enjeti's deft hands, the story of a woman's search for her grandfather, and for a connection to the ancestors, is brought to life. A fantastic debut.

The Trauma of Partition: A Conversation with Anjali Enjeti Read more...

Epic in scope, intimate in the telling, Anjali Enjeti's The Parted Earth is a devastating portrayal of Partition and the trauma it wreaked in the generations that followed... A magnificent debut.

...Throughout The Parted Earth, the novel's characters face desperately high stakes, enduring a relentless chain of traumas and upheavals. In each case, Enjeti depicts her characters' struggles with a deeply felt but measured sense of discernment. Healing may be possible, but its costs remain considerable. Read more...

A first novel that adroitly explores the lasting impacts of families fractured and repaired. Read more...