Latitudes of Longing

Other than the language that drips with an intense intangible longing, the thing that beats like a heart constantly throughout Shubhangi Swarup's book 'Latitudes Of Longing' is an omnipresent point of conflict between belief system and science, between romanticism (as we don't know it) and realism (as we know it), between the invisible and the visible, in short between various dimensions of existence.


Latitudes of Longing run through an atlas that consists of an ever shape-shifting, almost impossible geography of Love, Friendship, Instincts, Passions and Remembrance. Shubhangi Swarup draws and brings a world where opposite ideas co-habit, argue, pursue each other, even marry, live and evaporate into nothingness, leaving back a trail of show more an existence that is sometimes discovered and sometimes lost only to be enriched by the author's poetic writing style.


Nothing remains yet everything remains in the world that Shubhangi Swarup has carved out from rocks of consciousness. There is a symmetry to chaos in 'Latitudes Of Longing' This is a book that one cannot afford missing out on... show less

My thoughts:
I loved the lush lyrical language in these four loosely connected stories that offers narratives of people in South Asia whose voices are often missing in the mainstream.

Full of interesting historical, cultural and geological details as the stories took me to the Andaman Islands, 1990s Burma (now Myanmar) and the Karakoram Mountains.

Overall this inventive book offers a nuanced and thoughtful exploration of human connections and the world we live in.

In the author's note she says, "The muse of this novel is our unassuming planet, a being that bears more beauty, magic, and resilience than this human mind can fathom." and I so agree.

Who would enjoy this book:

Those who enjoy lush lyrical language and settings.
Stories where the show more dialogues is often philosophical musing on the movements of their life in their worlds.
Readers who enjoy an inventive styles. show less

The four stories in this book are loosely connected. Swarup’s powerful command of words makes this not only an interesting story of people, but it is a beautiful travelogue of India. The novellas show how people connect, or do not connect to their natural surroundings. I found the first story the most captivating for me, but they are all good. The debut authors are setting the bar exceedingly high for those who follow them.

I very much enjoyed the first half or so of the book, but I couldn't engage with the later stories and characters. I might come back to it.

So beautiful, so lyrical that it breaks my heart

It seemed much longer. A rambling story about India.

Parfois, tout ce qu’Apo peut affirmer savoir avec certitude, c’est la faculté des nuages à ne pas se précipiter dans l’espace et la tendance du soleil à se lever jour après jour.
(p. 259, Partie 4, “Désert de neige”).

J’ai entendu parler de ce livre à sa sortie, mais il ne me tentait pas outre mesure. Mais entre-temps, il a gagné le prix Emile Guimet, que je me suis mis en tête de lire, et il était disponible à pas cher en format électronique, alors…
Et finalement, ma première impression est la bonne : c’est pas mal, une lecture facile qui fait voyager dans différentes parties du sous-continent indien, des sentiments complexes, de la politique, des considérations géologiques… Ça se lit plutôt show more facilement, mais cela m’a paru un peu fourre-tout et finalement un peu superficiel. C’est peu dire que je reste sur ma faim et que je suis d’autant plus déçue que [La Sterne rouge] d’Antonythasan Jesuthasan que j’avais lu en 2022 et qui était dans la sélection n’ait pas été choisi. C’est peut-être le côté trop consensuel de Dérive des âmes et des continents qui a orienté le jury et qui moi m’a laissée sur le côté de la route. show less