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    The Living
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    The Living
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    The Living
    Audiobook5 hours

    The Living

    Written by Anjali Joseph

    Narrated by Harriet Kershaw and Sartaj Garewal

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    LONGLISTED FOR THE DSC PRIZE FOR SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE 2017

    In this tender, lyrical, and often funny novel, Anjali Joseph, author of Saraswati Park, shines a light on everyday life, illuminating its humour, beauty, and truth.

    There is a certain number of breaths each of us have to take, and no amount of care or carelessness can alter that.

    This is the story of two lives. Claire is a young single mother working in one of England’s last remaining shoe factories, her adult life formed by a teenage relationship. Is she ready to move on from memory and the routine of her days? Arun makes hand-sewn chappals at his home in Kolhapur. A recovered alcoholic, now a grandfather, he negotiates the newfound indignities of old age while returning in thought to the extramarital affair he had years earlier.

    These are lives woven through with the ongoing discipline of work and the responsibility and tedium of family life. Lives laced with the joys of friendship, the pleasure of sex, and the redemptive kindness of one’s own children. This is the story of the living.

    In this tender, lyrical and often funny novel, Anajli Joseph, author of Saraswati Park, shines a light on everyday life, illuminating its humour, beauty, and truth.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
    Release dateMar 10, 2016
    ISBN9780007568116
    Unavailable
    The Living
    Author

    Anjali Joseph

    Anjali Joseph was born in Bombay in 1978. She read English at Trinity College, Cambridge, and has taught English at the Sorbonne, written for the Times of India in Bombay and been a Commissioning Editor for ELLE (India). Her first novel, Saraswati Park (2010), won the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Betty Trask Prize and India’s Vodafone Crossword Book Award for Fiction. Another Country is her second novel.

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    Reviews for The Living

    3.5/5

    24 ratings19 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 4/5
      One of the most exciting voices in young adult fiction, Jenny Valentine succeeds again with this story of a family coping with the death of a child.
    • 5/5
      Great Book Best author I have come across since Robertson Davies passed away
    • 4/5
      This was an unusual novel. Annie Dillard writes about the life of people in Bellingham Bay in the late 1800s. It’s fiction, but she clearly researched what things looked like, how people lived, etc. In that way it’s fascinating. Also, the writing is truly gorgeous - some of the most beautiful and potent writing I’ve read in a while. For example, there’s a scene late in the book in which one of the characters, who is expecting to die very soon, goes out for an evening walk:“Here, in all the world, there shone only his own light - his red burning tobacco, and the glowing dottle beneath it, and the black unburnt bits above. There was no other light, human or inhuman, up or down the beach, or out on the invisible islands, or back in the woods, or anywhere on earth or in heaven, except the chill and fantastical sheen on the sea, whose cause was unfathomable. Before him extended the visible universe: an unstable, thick darkness almost met the silver line of the sea. A long crack had opened between the thick darkness and the water. The crack, half the apparent height of a man, gave out upon a thin darkness, black without substance or stars. He looked out upon the thin darkness, and seemed to hear the woulds of the dead whir and slip on its deep fastness. They wanted back. Their bodies in the graveyard on the cliff could not see to steer their sleeping course, their sleeping heels in the air.”There are a couple of down sides to this book. One is that it’s pretty grim throughout - that may be the reality of those times, but it made it occasionally hard to keep reading. Also, there’s no story arc: The path of the novel is quite flat. I think she did that deliberately so that the emphasis would be on the place (a strong character itself) and the collective lives of the people, rather than any specific story. For me, that kept it from being as engaging as I would have liked.
    • 5/5
      15-year old Rowan's world is still shaken from the death of her outgoing, lovable older brother Jack. But she's not reeling. She doesn't have time for that. Jack's death has left a hole in her family that has plunged her mother into a deep depression, broken up her parents' marriage, and left her to singlehandedly run the household and care for her 6-year old sister, Stroma. Then something weird happens at the grocery store, and her life starts to change. A guy she's never seen before tells her that she dropped something and hands her a photo negative. It's definitely not hers. She doesn't even have a camera. So she throws it away. But the curiosity of a schoolmate, Bee, who witnessed the exchange compels her to fish it out of the trash and develop the photo. It's really not hers. But it's of her dead brother. Where did it come from? And who was that guy? This is one of the most mature and realistic "journey of healing" type books I've read. It wasn't gimmicky at ALL, and this book had the potential to be extremely gimmicky. It wasn't wrapped up too nice and neat at the end. The 15-year old narrator matures visibly throughout the course of the book. I especially liked the way the romance was handled. Rowan didn't bore everyone by spending page after page pining after her crush when she clearly has other things on her mind, and yet it managed to feel natural, not cheap or tacked on. It was a minor part of the book, but added a nice element. I would definitely recommend this book to teens looking for a realistic read.
    • 4/5
      Rowan is holding the family together, after the death of her brother Jack. Problem is, it's been several years since Jack's passing. Her mother is beyond help at this point and doesn't even realize Rowan and her sister, Stroma are there half the time. While in the store on day, a boy gives Rowan a photo negative. It's not hers and the small piece of film is the first piece of a mystery that leads everyone to some amazing, life altering truths. What will happen with the boy, Harper who gave Rowan the negative too? As everyone holds on to their pieces of Jack, yet tries to get on with life, while not completely losing him. I loved this book. Rowan was a strong character with a terrific voice. I also loved the fact that it's set in London so I get little pieces of the British slang. I guess I should say, "I love this book to bits!"
    • 4/5
      This was one of the more touching YA books I've read. No wonder that it received awards and great reviews.Occasionally, I felt that the style of writing was a bit too distracting, pulling one's attention away from the story to the more stylistic, verbal elements, instead of emphasizing the plot, the characters and the message.The characters in the book are all very memorable. Particularly Rowan with her big heart, tolerance, acceptance and understanding for everything and everyone. She's a much better person than I am and I wished, many times throughout the book, that I could be a bit more like her.Reading this story will leave a mark.
    • 5/5
      This was a good case of "never judge a book by its cover". I bypassed this one for a while because the cover just looked too teenage (I'm an adult who just happens to still read a lot of children's/YA fiction). And yet when I did get round to it, I found it completely absorbing. One of those can't-put-it-down books. And I absolutely hadn't guessed the twist at the end!
    • 5/5
      This is not a book through which you race along. It took me a full month to read it, I think. It's very dense, very solid, full of similes that make you think, and situations that make you cringe or cry or laugh or shudder. There's not much of a plot, which in this instance is OK, because the focus of the story is on the people and on the place in which they live and on the nature of life there. You get a definite sense in the first half of the book of the apparent randomness of death on the 19th-century Northwestern U.S. frontier, and the second half goes more into life in a boom town and the way the ups and downs of that kind of existence affect the characters. I'm making it sound very dull, but it's not; the writing is lyrical and thoughtful and very, very good.
    • 2/5
      I've been told that this is not Annie Dillard's best work. Nevertheless, there are things about it that I really like, and some things I find less appealing. First, I love the atmospherics in the book. Her description of Western Washington in the 1850's, when the book begins are right on, and give a great period flavor. The dark, dripping forest, the damp days, make the setting feel almost primeval. Unfortunately, I'm less fond of the plot--particularly at the end of the book, when it sort of degenerates into a big whodunit. Who cares. I liked this book but you have to take the good with the bad.
    • 3/5
      In Broken Soup, three freaky things happened to upset fifteen-year-old Rowan’s life. The first thing was that her older brother died from a freak swimming accident in France. As a result, her mother withdraw into herself and her father withdrew from her daily life, moving out of the house, leaving Rowan to care for her mother and her younger sister, Stroma. The second thing was an unknown boy standing behind her at the local coffee shop handing her a photo negative which he said dropped out of her bag. She knew she didn’t drop it.The third occurrence was Bee, a high school senior she never knew or socialized with, coming up to her at lunch and asking about the negative. She was also in line at the coffee shop. This confluence of events and their later unraveling, leads to totally unimagined and unforeseen results. You see, the negative was a photo of her brother, looking extremely happy. The boy, Harper, who gave Rowan the negative, is a New Yorker traveling around Europe (Rowan lives in London) whose current address is an ambulance with all the creature comforts of home. And Bee, well, I’ll let you find out who Bee is.Jenny Valentine has written an intriguing second novel. The main characters are interesting and, in some cases quirky: from Stroma, the precocious six-year-old, to Harper, living in an ambulance, to Carl, Bee’s father who smokes marijuana and is more like a father than Rowan’s own father. There is some intrigue as Rowan seeks more information about the photo and about her brother. There is love on many levels: boys and girls, mothers and fathers, parents and children. And finally, there is the realization that not all burdens should fall on the shoulders of a fifteen-year-old. Broken Soup is a quick but fulfilling read.
    • 5/5
      British teenager Rowan is the glue that is holding her family together after the death of her brother. It's been two years since her brother Jack died, but her sister still writes him letters and her mother remains depressed. Her parents divorce has left Rowan as the caretaker of the family - far more responsibility than a fifteen year-old should have to take on. While this book was written for the teenage crowd, adults will find familiarity with the issues of depression, loss, and first loves.
    • 4/5
      I think the biggest reason that I enjoyed this book is that I live in Seattle, so I am familiar with the areas in which it takes place, and can appreciate how much this area has changed in the past 150 years. The book really made me think about the first white settlers who came out here, and how hard their lives were, yet how rewarding the landscape could be for them, as it is for me.On the downside, the book is at time gruesome and depressing - life was hard for these people, and Dillard doesn't spare us any of the grief or gore. Sometimes I didn't really understand the characters and their feelings. The plot line doesn't really follow a conflict-resolution trajectory: it is just a continuing saga of a few generations of Puget Sound's first settlers, and as such the plot wasn't very satisfying. Closer to real life, perhaps, but there was never a sense of resolution. Dillard's writing is very rewarding.
    • 4/5
      "The Living" is a deft novel and as driven as I was to finish reading I didn't find the overall narrative to be too compelling. Dillard holds a weighty and biblical tone through most of the book as it chronicles life of pioneers in Whatcom County. Reading about life during this time was detailed and if you've ever visited the Puget Sound area the perspective of awe and wonder Dillard captures in the setting is well crafted indeed. It is a great skill to be able to capture the lives of particular people in a particular place but I finished the book thinking "so what?" as the sound of the wind through douglas fir rattled in my head.
    • 3/5
      First I should say that I did like the characters and cared about them. That being said, I didn't like much else. The plot varied between being unbelievable (coincidences, etc.) to being way too predictable. Also, the formatting of the dialogue was annoying. I guess I've just read so many books like this that this one doesn't stand out in any way for me, other than the fact they're in London rather than in the US.
    • 4/5
      I purchased this book shortly after I moved to Bellingham Washington... It was a really great novel that made me really understand how difficult the early settlers had it. I was shocked and dismayed by the huge numbers of people who died horrible deaths in this book.
    • 4/5
      Dillard's prose is wonderfully descriptive and delightfully crafted; this is a fabulous work.
    • 4/5
      An epic story covering 40 years in the history of the Pacific Northwest of the United States, starting in 1855. Many interesting characters and details of how the early pioneers to the region lived, survived and developed the land into the cities that now thrive -- Seattle, Tacoma, and Bellingham, WA, which is the primary focus of the book. Because I live in these cities, I found the history fascinating and Dillard's descriptions of the place precise and accurate. I did find myself wondering if the book would hold the interest of people not familiar with the place. For that to happen, the narrative must be compelling and if this book falls short in any part, it may be that. Though the times that are the focus of the book required much in the way of physical effort from the people, Dillard's narrative spends a majority of the time inside the minds of the characters as they ruminate on life and what seems to be ever-present death in this difficult environment. But there are enough moments in which characters we have come to know are cast onto the rocks of fate in heart-wrenching ways that, overall, you do find yourself rooting for these characters and I found myself wanting to spend more time with them just to make sure they'd all be alright in the end. There is a sense of realness to the characters and I was left missing them, both because the story was over and because they all live more than a hundred years ago and so as vibrant as they are in the pages of the book, they are long gone and buried by time.
    • 3/5
      Anjali Joseph’s third novel tells two tenuously connected stories of two dissimilar people living thousands of miles apart. Thirty-something Claire lives in Norwich, England, with her teenage son, Jason, and works in a shoe factory. Claire, estranged from her family and long out of touch with Jason’s father, makes ends meet but lives a sterile and inert emotional life. She goes to work without regret because it is a kind of labour that, though often tedious, occupies her physically and intellectually and provides welcome distraction from her empty love life and other worries. Eventually she meets a man, Damian, with whom she strikes up a casually romantic relationship. But where love is concerned, Claire is reserved and tentative, unable to commit, to take the next step. After she and Damian meet a few times and have fun, she starts putting him off and pretending to not be available. But when he stops calling she is assailed by confusion and regret. When her father dies, and she has no choice but to reconnect with members of her family, the hurts and grudges of the past come rushing back. In the novel’s other thread, we meet Arun, in his late sixties, a reformed but still susceptible alcoholic, who lives in India and earns a modest wage by making sandals by hand, an outmoded but exacting craft that he knows will soon be lost. Arun’s story is one heavy with forebodings of mortality. Arun is suffering from physical indignities that are consistent with his age and history of alcohol abuse, and he resists visiting the doctor because of what he might discover. Arun both loves and resents his wife, whose strong and steady demeanor is the glue holding the family together. Their lengthy up and down marriage, which survived his drinking and an affair he had with a local woman, has remained steady, though his relationships with his two sons are strained. As the days pass and he senses physical decline signalling that his time on earth is limited, the affair and accompanying guilt are increasingly on his mind. Joseph’s novel, vividly written and filled with painterly detail, though lacking somewhat in immediacy and narrative drive, urgently evokes sensations of remorse and reproach as Claire and Arun struggle to come to terms with decisions they have made and how those decisions continue to affect the people they love. The two stories, split into four alternating sections, are not linked in any conventional sense, though each carries thematic echoes of the other. The Living is a wise and beautiful book that shines a light on human nature at its most vulnerable and exposed. However, readers will likely finish it with as many questions about the structure as about the fates of the two main characters.
    • 2/5
      Not a book I warmed to unfortunately. Characters were not that believable.