The Folded Earth and its themes of love, loss and finding oneself may initially remind some readers of chick lit, but Anuradha Roy rises above that genre's traditional machinations with a powerful piece of fiction that weaves together history and politics, tugging at the heartstrings while reveling in the hope that comes at the end of a difficult journey.
Roy's (An Atlas of Impossible Longing) story takes place in the idyllic Himalayan hill town of Ranikhet, a village evocative of the mystical Shangri-La, where the young Hindu widow Maya seeks refuge and solace after the death of her husband in a mountaineering accident. Maya's life revolves around her duties as an inept missionary school teacher and a small cast of characters--the sweet, naive peasant girl Charu, whom Maya teaches to read and write so that she may communicate with a secret lover in Delhi; Charu's gossipy, superstitious grandmother, Ama, and her animal-whisperer uncle, Puran; and Maya's reclusive landlord, the Diwan Sahib, who acts as a companion and voice of reason. Maya enters into a burgeoning romance with Diwan's mysterious nephew, Veer Singh, whose sudden reappearance opens old wounds and precipitates the monsoonal changes that threaten to turn Ranikhet into a political circus.
Roy's confident prose echoes the sedate harmony Maya finds in her new small town existence. Even at its most conflicted moments, The Folded Earth manages to maintain a credibility that would be lost in lesser hands. This elegiacal novel of love, loss and personal identity is a stunning achievement for this rising star of Indian literary fiction. -- Nancy Powell, freelance writer