Everything the Light Touches

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Everything the Light Touches

Everything the Light Touches

RRP: £99
Price: £9.9
£9.9 FREE Shipping

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The book raises questions on the role of indigenous wisdom and science in looking at Nature. It forces us to think about our propensity to categorise things, and reminds us that while we can be classified, each of us is also unique and constantly growing and changing. We start looking at development differently, and wonder if the need of the country is more important or the lives and lifestyles of the people. We are forced to reflect on the purpose of life, and when and whether we should let others go.

Everything the Light Touches is published by HarperCollins. For more on Goethean science see: tinyurl.com/goethean-science Grim thoughtfully hums. It feels more like a purr against your chest which helps calm your racing mind. “That shitty bird said just do what we did before… Do ya think that-” Ah, so that’s what it is then. The lion beastman stretches himself out, while he calculates the pros and cons of what Ruggie is trying to hint at him to do. The novel unfurls gently, carrying us from the present deeper into the past, allowing threads of narrative to grow, mutate, interlace and unravel. Like nature itself, the stories are difficult to contain. Pariat’s landscapes, deftly woven with layered detail, reflect a melancholy that has become synonymous with the Anthropocene: the sadness with which we view all natural things of beauty. Her language is gentle, her prose elegant—but her words pierce through to the deepest places of the heart. A novel like none other: Janice Pariat brings vividly to life a conception of plants as beings endowed with a powerful inner vitality." — Amitav Ghosh, author of Gun IslandIt’s not that Leona LIKES you. And it’s definitely not that he hates you. Well, maybe some resentment. No, not that either. It started that way especially from the aftermath of the Magift tournament but now it was different. It was some feeling that made his chest clench when he would see you in the bleachers, cheering as loud as you could for his teammates. It’d also happen when he would see you trailing after those troublesome first-years, like a small cub following its parent. Beneath our feet exists another world, I learn, a network of infinite biological pathways, through which trees share resources, information, nutrients. Some regard it as a competitive system, regulated through self-interest, sanction, and reward. Others believe trees care for one another, and act as guardians, sharing resources, with the healthy supporting the weak. A free market versus a socialist’s dream.“

Drawn richly from scientific and botanical ideas, Everything the Light Touches is a swirl of ever-expanding themes: the contrasts between modern India and its colonial past, urban and rural life, capitalism and centuries-old traditions of generosity and gratitude, script and “song and stone.” Pulsating at its center is the dichotomy between different ways of seeing, those that fix and categorize and those that free and unify. Pariat questions the imposition of fixity—of our obsession to place permanence on plants, people, stories, knowledge, land—where there is only movement, fluidity, and constant transformation. “To be still,” says a character in the book, “is to be without life.” As much as I loved the writing, I confess I didn’t quite understand the purpose of the characters’ stories. For me, it made more sense as short stories where the reader revisits each character. Or maybe that’s how it was meant to be. And yet, there were moments when I was utterly captivated by the poetic nuances. It was like a picture being drawn before my eyes – word by word. If I had to sum the book up in four words, it would be "Four people, four journeys." Shai lost her job at an NGO in Delhi, returned home to Shillong, and journeyed to a remote village to be with the nanny who brought her up. Evelyn is a student of Botany at Cambridge who leaves Edwardian England to journey to India in search of an almost mythical tree. Goethe is a philosopher, poet and playwriter who leaves his native Germany to spend time in Italy where he expounds on this theory that plants cannot be categorised, labelled and named, because they are everchanging. Linnaeus is the famous scientist about whom it was said, "God creates, Linnaeus classifies". Each of them is on a journey uniquely their own, and yet whether they know it or not, their journeys are interlinked. Hey hey hey! Where are we supposed to stay until then? I’m a growing Master Mage, I need plenty of room to stretch my legs at!” Grim spats out as he tries to climb your shoulder. You wince a bit at the claws that dig into the skin under your shirt, and try to hold onto Grim while he looks at the man that has now pushed you at the door’s threshold. A timeless & lyrically wise celebration of characters deeply connected to plants, all of the living world, as well as human relationships. Among her influences East Indian author Janice Pariat credits the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.Ambitious and capacious ... As the reader journeys through this atmospheric and accomplished novel, they discover that the natural world around us is loud enough for those willing to listen, and Pariat has found the language for it." — The Guardian There are very few stories that can make you think beyond the book and see a world from a different lens, and this one does just that. The 4 stories are set across time and places and present a picture that is unique yet intimately connected through the thread of the idea of the world we live in. As I started reading the book and encountered Shai’s story, my mind started forming a notion of what the book could be, and then as I moved on to Evelyn’s story, it was a completely different frame, and that was something I really loved about the book, the fact that it tells you a story which is the characters’ own and uninhibited story of their being and their reason for following the light. Focusing on the aspect of nature and the quest of finding an enigma, each of the characters ultimately lead a journey that puts them on a journey where they rediscover themselves. Gilded gold claws continue tapping against the writing desk, playing an unknown song to you. Or, knowing the person with those claws, it’s likely a made-up tune the Headmage came up with in the moment.



  • Fruugo ID: 258392218-563234582
  • EAN: 764486781913
  • Sold by: Fruugo

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