BOOK SUBSCRIPTION BOX 3: TOMB OF SAND + ARABESQUES

February Book Box 3 features Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree and Arabesques by Anton Shammas

Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree

A playful, feminist, and utterly original epic set in contemporary northern India, about a family and the inimitable octogenarian matriarch at its heart. Rich with fantastical elements, folklore, and exuberant wordplay, Geetanjali Shree’s magnificent novel transcends borders and explores timely and timeless topics, including Buddhism, global warming, feminism, the Partition, gender, 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.

Arabesques by Anton Shammas

Chosen by The New York Times as one of the best books of 1988, Arabesques is a luminous novel that engages with history and politics not as propaganda but as literature. That engagement begins with the language in which the book is written: Anton Shammas, from a Palestinian Christian family and raised in Israel, wrote in Hebrew, as no Arab novelist had before, a choice that was provocative to both Arab and Jewish readers. Through a labyrinth of characters, places, times, and meanings, Anton Shammas tries to answer the eternal question, “Who am I?”, in a space rife with conflict and multiple truths.