A saga of sisters

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Tania James was a guest at the Brisbane Writers’ Festival in September 2009 (together with Padma Viswanathan, whose book The Toss of a Lemon, we reviewed in this column a couple of months ago). Her debut novel Atlas of Unknowns is published by Scribe, an independent publishing house in Australia. Like Padma Viswanathan, Tania James too was inspired by her family’s history to write this novel.

Atlas of Unknowns is an unforgettable tale of two sisters, whose bonds are powerfully tested, and is filled with secret histories and hilarious eccentricities of their family – as families everywhere. In this context, two previous novels by Anglo-Indian writers about sisters separated by distance come to mind: Monica Ali’s Brick Lane, and Chitra Banerji Divakaruni’s Sister of My Heart. In James’ novel, the two sisters Linno and Anju Vallara, are raised in Kerala by their father and grandmother in the wake of their mother’s mysterious death. Linno is the elder who loses a hand in a childhood accident and does not do well in school, but develops a skill for drawing; while Anju is academically precocious and ambitious. When seventeen-year-old Anju wins a scholarship to study in New York, she jumps at the chance to embrace all that America has to offer, but in doing so she commits an act of betrayal that severs her relationship with her sister. When Anju’s lies catch up with her she runs away, helped by a kindly stranger who somehow knows things about Anju’s past. Meanwhile, Linno begins a journey of her own: towards her sister, towards the memory of their mother and towards a future she could never have imagined.

Tania James, who was born and brought up in Kentucky in the US, evokes a Kerala and a traditional Syrian Catholic household with such attention to detail that it is truly remarkable. The chapters located in Kerala are often reminiscent of Arundhati Roy’s (almost autobiographical) family of similar background in God of Small Things - in style, brilliance of expression, wry humour and genius of story-telling.

Tania James’ language is like a polished gem that shines no matter from which angle it is viewed. Her literary talents are simply far superior to most contemporary IWE, and it will be very surprising indeed if she does not win a Literary Award this year. She is a truly gifted writer whose elegant and polished prose, keenly observed family idiosyncrasies, eye for the minutiae of everyday life, powerful story-telling abilities, all make this book a delight to read. She paints the sisters’ worlds in India and the US beautifully – moving seamlessly from one to the other as she describes their lives unfolding and fills them with colourful characters that will stay in our minds long after we put the book down.

Besides being a wonderful story teller and a gifted writer, James’ novel is also a nuanced examination of the immigrant experience: about those who leave – and those that are left behind. Her keenly observed descriptions are powerful and incisive, and proof of a preternatural mind and superior training. Here is a passage where she describes Anju working in a salon in New York:

“…She squats like only a Third Worlder can, froglike, for minutes on end, brushing tumbleweeds of black and hennaed hair into a dustpan…”

James has published in One Story and New York Times, and lives in New York City.

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