ALL THE LIVES WE NEVER LIVED

This novel is quite an achievement. There is history, there are cameos by famous people from the past, there is a love story, there is a family drama, there is a search, there are also current affairs and environmental issues, and all of it in an engrossing, tear-jerking read. I totally loved this book.

All the lives we never lived is the story of a boy named, Myshkin Rozario, who has now turned old and is a horticulturist by profession. The story opens with him reminscing his mother, Gayatri Roazario who had ran off with a German, named, Walter Spies. Myshkin reminisces his past life as he attempts to piece together the jigsaw of his mother’s abrupt disappearance when he was a child. The narrative is set in pre independent India when freedom struggle was racheting up. Myshkin's father is a principled, no nonsense kind of man who is also an ardent follower of freedom fighter, Mukti Devi. Myshkin's mother is a rebel and an avante garde whose interests lie in painting, music and travel. Myshkin's father looks down upon her and keeps nudging her to model herself after Mukti Devi. Gayatri detests this humiliation from her husband and wants to break this marital bond and travel the world. The opportunity comes knocking when Walter Spies arrives at her doorstep. Gayatri goes away with him, leaving her 10 year old child clueless and helpless. Myshkin, in the beginning, hates his mother for doing this. But eventually he understands her predicament - her will to be free and flowing, her desire to be not bound by rules. Gayatri's constant communication with him through letters, make him long for a life that his mother's living. He waits for her to come and take him along. However, as time passes, the daily life absorbs his longing for his mother. This is when the World War II breaks out. Myshkin gets worried about his mother as he does not recieve any news from her. After lot of contemplation, Myshkin, at his current age, decides to set out on a travel that his mother had, years ago with a hope to hear about her from the people who must have had met her. Anuradha's story telling is lyrical and lucid. You will be enamoured by the powerful imagery in the book, especially the part where Gayatri describes her stay in Bali. You will actually live it. For me, Gayatri's character is a takeaway.

Gayatri, in a fictional town called Muntazir in present day Uttarakhand feels trapped in a marriage with a male supremacists husband who also is a nationalist. She runs away with a German painter, Walter Spies to Bali leaving her 7 year old son with years of horrible trauma. Mostly set in British India during WW2, All The Lives We Never Lived is yet another novel about privileged Indians who complain way too much. The book has its moment but is a snooze fest most of the time.Roy wants to sound eloquent and she did achieve that but this book drags a lot, nothing happens in the first hundred pages. When a plot thickens, it sets off into another sub plot. New characters get introduced out of nowhere. Sometimes it feels like she is throwing ideas on the wall. Roy in her knack for wanting to come off as a gifted writer of swoon words writes immaculate prose but her story telling makes it seem like she’s trying too hard.Roy must assume that the readers are smart enough to decipher her cryptic messages but she clearly overestimated my brilliance cause I do not have the cerebral to grasp her ‘up in the air’ instructions to understanding nor do I have the patience to try to even decipher it. A book that can be finished painfully if you’re stubborn enough. It’s a book about people who have so much but endlessly complain. It takes immense privilege to introspect in your garden while people are literally going to bed hungry. ATLWNL has pages of gruelling passages, it does not hurt so good, it hurts so much!

All the lives we never livedAnuradha Roy, an author that breaks my heart with her surreal sad stories interspersed with petrichor smells of monsoon rain and hills. Her characters are deeply alone living a sad disappointed life. They pleasures of art and beauty are like the dust of butterfly wings crumbling as you try to touch them. They have hopes and dreams but the life disappoints them and like a domino effect all those around them.Oh the poetry of her words and her stories, she keeps me hooked pulling me into the sadness of her characters. I feel sad, angry, helpless and feel like telling them to get over it.. come out of your vicious circle of misery and self pity. Why aren’t the others around them helping them. Is it a curse to feel so deeply and think so much. These beautiful souls struggle in this tough and thorny world, who will protect them?For us who have hardened to the so called truth of the harshness of this world, can only see them wither away. For all the lives we never lived.. for all the lives we could be.. for all the lives we couldn’t live.. and for all the lives we couldn’t save..The story is about a man whose mother left her loveless marriage and her child to set free and follow dreams and adventures. The child is left insecure and unwanted living a life trying to find beauty and meaning amongst the plants and trees. As a reader I was torn between being a woman and a mother - how difficult it would be to abandon your child and then again aren’t women supposed to dream forced into a marriage and family of not their choice. These are dilemmas plaguing millions of women where they choose to stay for their children fulfilling the roles assigned by the society. While some fly away referred to by ugly names for rest of their lives, leaving many other lives and homes in shreds in their wake. Oh the power of being a woman and the burden of being one!And for those who want to read this surreal book please accept that it’s long and may wind you up in the pains and regrets of your own past. To go through the misery is one thing... but to get a certain kind of subtle satisfaction from reliving that is another. Some times the past unhappiness comes back to strike the cords of your heart, you reminisce it, pat your heart and move on.. or the only way to move on is to fall into the abyss of the regrets and live the lives we never lived and come out reborn, living all the lives we never lived.After all the only thing that keeps up going is hope!- by Storywala.blogspot

Lovely read! An intriguing tale about an artist's quest to fulfill her higher purpose set within the confines of a arranged marriage traditional construct of pre-Independence India, and the impact of her free spirited decisions on her family. Loved the fact that the book is narrated by the son of the artist.

Again she captures peoples inner lives with such empathy and insight. She weaves their stories around each other, intimate like the unseen tangled roots of trees.

Letto in lingua originale poiché amo la scrittrice. Libro bello, emozionante, triste sull'amore che può legare le persone per tutta la vita e le conseguenze delle scelte. Storicamente ricco nell'ambientazione. Da leggere.

I thought this a lovely book full of emotions that came together in a delicate symphony. I would recommend it

Un vrai roman qui raconte l'Inde autant qu'il raconte la vie des personnages. Anuradha Roy est une écrivaine inspirée, et son livre a été salué très justement par la critique internationale