The House Next to the Factory
by Sonal Kohli
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Pub Date 3 Nov 2022 | Archive Date 3 Nov 2022
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Description
‘Thoughtful, delicate and wide-ranging, The House Next to the Factory is a testament to the often-overlooked power of the ordinary’ - Madhuri Vijay
The House Next to the Factory shows a changing India over three decades through the lens of one family and the house that they live in.
Life in the house is humdrum and confining, but on a rare evening out, Kavya sets off in search of a nun; a beloved teacher is caught in the aftermath of the anti-Sikh riots; a loyal servant worries over his relationship with a low caste woman; while in England, an aunt reads William Trevor and pines for all that she has left behind. Over the years, the family's steel utensil business blossoms, and amid the clanging of metal and the churning of machines, the household transitions from bourgeois to elite. Yet at thirty, Kavya finds herself in Paris, hoping to get past the sorrows of her young life…
Delicate and finely textured, Sonal Kohli's extraordinary debut lays bare the complexities of class and culture and the difficulties as well as excitements of change, even as it evokes loves and triumphs, the pull of incongruous desires and the tragedies of everyday life.
‘What links Sonal Kohli’s beautiful, perspicacious stories is an aspirational India informed by historical and economic change …. she has a way of absorbing the reader in her world, and also revealing very delicately how that world is surprising, unexpected, and in flux’ - Amit Chaudhuri
‘In quietly ambitious prose, Sonal Kohli charts the turbulent three decades of a 'rising' India. The House Next to the Factory is one of the very rare fictions to examine the immense human costs – profound emotional and psychological disorientations – that the Indian bourgeoisie has paid for its material success’ - Pankaj Mishra
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781800751316 |
| PRICE | £12.99 (GBP) |
Links
Featured Reviews
Ben D, Reviewer
This debut collection from author Sonal Kohli of nine short stories centres on characters whose lives and dramas are independent of each other, but who are.connected through the titular house next to the factory.
The collection begins in the 1980s and moves slowly through the decades. The stories themselves are relatively minor in their scope - there are no grand incidents here (albeit the assassination of Indira Ghandi in 1984 forms the backdrop for one piece) - just images of the domestic through whose prism we gain an insight into Indian life in Delhi (and occasionally elsewhere). Some of the characters re-appear but the stories could easily be read independently of each other.
Due to its brevity I read this in one sitting, and that really helped soak me into this world, wonderfully created by Sonal Kohli's luminous prose. This is a debut collection which certainly marks her out as an author to watch.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.
Reviewer 823951
Thoughtful and insightful….. Sonal Kohli charts the turbulent three decades of a 'rising' India. The author manages to infuse a thoroughly evocative atmosphere of India into a page-turner plot. An author to look out for. This one deserves 4 stars!
Rita E, Reviewer
The House Next to the Factory
By Sonal Kohli
I have never been to India, but it features highly in my reading life. Could there be another place that can titivate all five senses through reading alone?
This gorgeous debut is no exception.
Nine short stories that are loosely connected, not so much by the eponymous house, more by the grandchildren we encounter in the first few stories. Through vividly imagined scenery, haunting music, make-your-mouth-water food descriptions and textures of fabrics, even grit, I may as well have been there. The writing is poetic, sensual and in high definition technicolour. Perfect for the armchair traveller.
Looking forward to seeing what this author produces next.
Publication date: 3rd November 2022
Thanks to #netgalley and #swiftpress for the egalley
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