--- product_id: 13160025 title: "An Atlas of Impossible Longing: A Novel" price: "87.18 DT" currency: TND in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.tn/products/13160025-an-atlas-of-impossible-longing-a-novel store_origin: TN region: Tunisia --- # An Atlas of Impossible Longing: A Novel **Price:** 87.18 DT **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** An Atlas of Impossible Longing: A Novel - **How much does it cost?** 87.18 DT with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.tn](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/13160025-an-atlas-of-impossible-longing-a-novel) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description “This is why we read fiction at all” raves the Washington Post : Family life meets historical romance in this critically acclaimed, “gorgeous, sweeping novel” ( Ms Magazine ) about two people who find each other when abandoned by everyone else, marking the signal American debut of an award-winning writer who richly deserves her international acclaim. On the outskirts of a small town in Bengal, a family lives in solitude in their vast new house. Here, lives intertwine and unravel. A widower struggles with his love for an unmarried cousin. Bakul, a motherless daughter, runs wild with Mukunda, an orphan of unknown caste adopted by the family. Confined in a room at the top of the house, a matriarch goes slowly mad; her husband searches for its cause as he shapes and reshapes his garden. As Mukunda and Bakul grow, their intense closeness matures into something else, and Mukunda is banished to Calcutta. He prospers in the turbulent years after Partition, but his thoughts stay with his home, with Bakul, with all that he has lost—and he knows that he must return. Review: SMILING IN THE OLD WAY, FINALLY - Anurada Roy is one of my favorite authors, especially the multi-generational family stories she weaves so skillfully. "An Atlas" begins and ends with a grandiose house built near a river south of Calcutta that is threatening the foundations of the house with every monsoon. The main setting is the village of Songarh, the time is the early 1900's, and the place a small village built on a rocky plateau. Tribal people still live in the surrounding forest, and the patriarch of the Hindi family that settles there, Amulya, discovered the village on a business trip from Calcutta. Songarh spoke to him with its verdant valleys, primal forests, rolling hills and pleasant climate. With background in the pharmaceutical business, he develops the idea to set up a small factory in Songarh manufacturing perfumes and medicinal products from the abundant wild herbs, flowers and leaves that flourish in the area. The forest people know where to find many rare plants like wild hibiscus (the lovely red incarnata), fragrant flowers of the night, and a myriad of wild herbs. Songarh has an ancient past, going back to the time of the Buddha. There is an ancient, giant Banyan tree with its own tangle of aerial roots that he is said to have rested under on one of his journeys. There are collapsing walls of a medieval fort with a domed watchtower. English geologists have discovered and miners have dug deep mines yielding mica and coal leaving behind giant caves. Their settlements encroach on the natives' habitat to some degree, but Songarh still hovers close to the jungle, wild with leopards, tigers and jackals. Amulya hires a Scottish architect and builds a gigantic house (enough to grow a family in) outside of Songarh in scrubland and fields to distance himself from the town. Instead of naming his house, which is the custom among the wealthy, he gives his house a number--3 Dulganj Road--the 3 standing for him and his two sons. From here the story takes off and unfolds in ways that never could have been predicted. There are great loves and friendships, great yearnings and forbidden loves, great wealth and poverty, all knotted like the roots of the Banyan tree. There are Amulya's lush, lovingly tended garden with all kinds of exotic plantings, inviting fossils beds behind his house to explore, and expanded family members who have the opportunity to be educated and widen their horizons. But along with this carefully planned existence there erupts madness, treachery, murder, orphans, greed and envy. Mix all this with fluctuating social classes and religions of early 20th century India, and you have a magnificent, jumbled saga you don't want to end. Review: An interesting and well written book about small-town life at ... - An interesting and well written book about small-town life at the end of the British Raj, the Partition, and the beginning of an independent India. I found the jumps between the different 'books' a little disjointed, though the themes and many of the individuals were woven back into the story later. The writing is sometimes lyrical without going over the line to maudlin or flowery. As an archaeologist, I wish authors would take a little time to find out what we do (and what those of the 1940s or 1950s did). The archaeologist in this book seems to spend most of his time pressing flowers and leaves and digging up fossils; the political and social milieu that created an opportunity for archaeology to be inspirational to a new regime and society by rediscovering and researching ancient cultures was only mentioned in passing. ## Features - Used Book in Good Condition ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #1,231,633 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #2,086 in Cultural Heritage Fiction #33,730 in Literary Fiction (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.1 out of 5 stars 870 Reviews | ## Images ![An Atlas of Impossible Longing: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/713MfVnUsjL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ SMILING IN THE OLD WAY, FINALLY *by M***M on February 27, 2014* Anurada Roy is one of my favorite authors, especially the multi-generational family stories she weaves so skillfully. "An Atlas" begins and ends with a grandiose house built near a river south of Calcutta that is threatening the foundations of the house with every monsoon. The main setting is the village of Songarh, the time is the early 1900's, and the place a small village built on a rocky plateau. Tribal people still live in the surrounding forest, and the patriarch of the Hindi family that settles there, Amulya, discovered the village on a business trip from Calcutta. Songarh spoke to him with its verdant valleys, primal forests, rolling hills and pleasant climate. With background in the pharmaceutical business, he develops the idea to set up a small factory in Songarh manufacturing perfumes and medicinal products from the abundant wild herbs, flowers and leaves that flourish in the area. The forest people know where to find many rare plants like wild hibiscus (the lovely red incarnata), fragrant flowers of the night, and a myriad of wild herbs. Songarh has an ancient past, going back to the time of the Buddha. There is an ancient, giant Banyan tree with its own tangle of aerial roots that he is said to have rested under on one of his journeys. There are collapsing walls of a medieval fort with a domed watchtower. English geologists have discovered and miners have dug deep mines yielding mica and coal leaving behind giant caves. Their settlements encroach on the natives' habitat to some degree, but Songarh still hovers close to the jungle, wild with leopards, tigers and jackals. Amulya hires a Scottish architect and builds a gigantic house (enough to grow a family in) outside of Songarh in scrubland and fields to distance himself from the town. Instead of naming his house, which is the custom among the wealthy, he gives his house a number--3 Dulganj Road--the 3 standing for him and his two sons. From here the story takes off and unfolds in ways that never could have been predicted. There are great loves and friendships, great yearnings and forbidden loves, great wealth and poverty, all knotted like the roots of the Banyan tree. There are Amulya's lush, lovingly tended garden with all kinds of exotic plantings, inviting fossils beds behind his house to explore, and expanded family members who have the opportunity to be educated and widen their horizons. But along with this carefully planned existence there erupts madness, treachery, murder, orphans, greed and envy. Mix all this with fluctuating social classes and religions of early 20th century India, and you have a magnificent, jumbled saga you don't want to end. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ An interesting and well written book about small-town life at ... *by M***E on December 5, 2014* An interesting and well written book about small-town life at the end of the British Raj, the Partition, and the beginning of an independent India. I found the jumps between the different 'books' a little disjointed, though the themes and many of the individuals were woven back into the story later. The writing is sometimes lyrical without going over the line to maudlin or flowery. As an archaeologist, I wish authors would take a little time to find out what we do (and what those of the 1940s or 1950s did). The archaeologist in this book seems to spend most of his time pressing flowers and leaves and digging up fossils; the political and social milieu that created an opportunity for archaeology to be inspirational to a new regime and society by rediscovering and researching ancient cultures was only mentioned in passing. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ An Atlas of Impossible Longing *by M***A on May 6, 2019* Excellent prose, characters that move our emotions (Mukunda and Bakul), deep human messages, complex but real situations I surrended completely to the narrator Congratulations Ms Anuradha Roy --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.tn/products/13160025-an-atlas-of-impossible-longing-a-novel](https://www.desertcart.tn/products/13160025-an-atlas-of-impossible-longing-a-novel) --- *Product available on Desertcart Tunisia* *Store origin: TN* *Last updated: 2026-06-06*