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Title: Atlas of Unknowns

Author: Tania James

Narrator: Sonya Suares

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-01-14

Publisher: Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Sometimes the hardest journey of all is finding your way back homeIn the wake of their mothers mysterious death, Linno and Anju Vallara are raised in Kerala by their father and grandmother.

When seventeen-year-old Anju wins a scholarship to study in New York, she jumps at the chance to embrace all that America has to offer, but in so doing commits an act of betrayal that severs her relationship with her sister. When Anjus lies catch up with her, she runs away, helped by a kindly stranger who somehow knows things about Anjus past. Meanwhile, Linno has begun a journey of her own: towards her sister, towards the memory of their mother, and towards a future she could never have imagined.

Atlas of Unknowns is an unforgettable tale of two sisters whose bonds are powerfully tested, and the secret histories and hilarious eccentricities of families everywhere.

Critic Reviews:

Jamess delightful first novel explores the hazards and rewards of wanting more than life willingly allots The author, a young Indian-American, writes with poise, sly humor and an acuity both cultural and sensuous: In New York, when a fellow Indian immigrant hires Anju to work in his beauty salon, he observes approvingly that she "squats like only a third-worlder can, froglike for minutes on end, brushing tumbleweeds of black and hennaed hair into a dustpan." . [T]he characters love for one another radiates off the pages. While recognizing the value of ambition, James also sees the rich comforts of knowing ones place - especially when that place boasts banana trees and masala dosa. (The New York Times Book Review)

Members Reviews:

Book Review for Atlas of the Unknowns

Atlas of the Unknowns is a story of two sisters Linno and Anju. It launches off with an accident with Linno burning her hand with fire crackers in their modest home in Kerala. Early on we learn that their mother died, and the death is somewhat of a mystery as is a letter she received from one Bird. The two girls are living with their father and their grandmother Amaachi in a lower middle class household in Kerala. The story moves with Anju getting a scholarship to America, but only after stealing Linno's art work as her own, while Linno evades marriage and instead works for the sister of the guy she was to get married to.

But the book is not just about sisters and secrets, it is about crossing cultures, and Anju observing those in America as someone new, and so noticing what others might not. Also there are hilarious scenes with her host family's son Rohit always using his camera and trying to get a documentary film. The book is also about the immigration and green card trap, about a conservative Keralite adjusting to doing bikini waxing in America.

The characters in the book are all very insightful about others and observant but less introspective about themselves which makes for interesting reading. Tania James also uses a close third Point of View and gets us close to different characters and weaves in the back story in a clever non linear fashion. And when you think you know how things are going she adds a new plot twist that pulls you out.

And yes finally the different strands are connected, as we watch the interactions of Anju with the mystery woman Bird, and her host family lady Mrs. Solanki who is on a show much like the View, as also the attempts of Linno to go to America to find her sister after Anju runs off once her lie about the art is revealed.