{"title":"Shruti Swamy","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"house-is-a-body-book-shruti-swamy-9781643751450","title":"A House Is a Body","description":"Finalist for the 2021 PEN\/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction“A House Is a Body will not simply be talked about as one of the greatest short story collections of the 2020s; it will change the way all stories—short and long—are told, written, and consumed. There is nothing, no emotion, no tiny morsel of memory, no touch, that this book does not take seriously.  Yet, A House Is a Body might be the most fun I’ve ever had in a short story collection.” —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy   Dreams collide with reality, modernity with antiquity, and myth with identity in the twelve arresting stories of A House Is a Body. Set in the United States and India, Swamy’s characters grapple with motherhood, relationships, and their bodies to reveal small but intense internal moments of beauty, pain, and power that contain the world. In “Earthly Pleasures,” a young painter living alone in San Francisco begins a secret romance with one of India’s biggest celebrities, and desire and ego are laid bare. In “A Simple Composition,” a husband’s professional crisis leads to his wife’s discovery of a dark, ecstatic joy. And in the title story, an exhausted mother watches, hypnotized by fear, as a California wildfire approaches her home. Immersive and assured, provocative and probing, these are stories written with the edge and precision of a knife blade.A House Is a Body introduces a bold and original voice in fiction, from a writer at the start of a stellar career. Don't miss Shruti Swamy's debut novel, The Archer (available September 7, 2021), which has already been longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":49744564420881,"sku":"CIN164375145XA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49763417424145,"sku":"CIN164375145XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51528080294161,"sku":"NGR9781643751450","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52447994872081,"sku":"NIN9781643751450","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53349803688209,"sku":"NLS9781643751450","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/164375145X.jpg?v=1759402606"},{"product_id":"house-is-a-body-book-shruti-swamy-9781616209896","title":"A House Is a Body","description":"\u003cb\u003eA Most Anticipated Book of 2020 from \u003ci\u003eThe Millions\u003c\/i\u003e * \u003ci\u003eBustle\u003c\/i\u003e * \u003ci\u003eBuzzFeed\u003c\/i\u003e * \u003ci\u003eElectric Literature\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Finalist for the 2021 PEN\/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Finalist for the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"Swamy's \u003ci\u003eA House Is a Body\u003c\/i\u003e will not simply be talked about as one of the greatest short story collections of the 2020s; it will change the way all stories--short and long--are told, written, and consumed. There is nothing, no emotion, no tiny morsel of memory, no touch, that this book does not take seriously.  Yet, \u003ci\u003eA House Is a Body\u003c\/i\u003e might be the most fun I've ever had in a short story collection.\" --Kiese Laymon, author of \u003ci\u003eHeavy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Dreams collide with reality, modernity with antiquity, and myth with identity in the twelve arresting stories of \u003ci\u003eA House Is a Body\u003c\/i\u003e. In \"Earthly Pleasures,\" a young painter living alone in San Francisco begins a secret romance with one of India's biggest celebrities, and desire and ego are laid bare. In \"A Simple Composition,\" a husband's professional crisis leads to his wife's discovery of a dark, ecstatic joy. And in the title story, an exhausted mother watches, hypnotized by fear, as a California wildfire approaches her home. Immersive and assured, provocative and probing, these are stories written with the edge and precision of a knife blade. Set in the United States and India, they reveal small but intense moments of beauty, pain, and power that contain the world.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eA House Is a Body\u003c\/i\u003e introduces a bold and original voice in fiction, from a writer at the start of a stellar career.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50386683035921,"sku":"CIN1616209895G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50591726338321,"sku":"CIN1616209895VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1616209895.jpg?v=1751023729"},{"product_id":"archer-book-shruti-swamy-9781616209902","title":"The Archer","description":"\"Set in 1970s Bombay, the novel explores art, ambition, gender roles and class with the same shimmering prose of Swamy's first book, the story collection A House Is a Body.\"  -San Francisco Chronicle    \"[A] sublime, boundary-pushing exploration of sexuality, creativity, and love.\"  -NPR     In this transfixing novel, a young woman comes of age in 1960s- and 1970s-era Bombay, a vanished world that is complex and indelibly rendered. Vidya's childhood is marked by the shattering absence and then the bewildering reappearance of her mother and baby brother at the family home. Restless, observant, and longing for connection with her brilliant and increasingly troubled mother, Vidya navigates the stifling expectations of her life with a vivid imagination until one day she peeks into a classroom where girls are learning kathak, a dazzling, centuries-old dance form that requires the utmost discipline and focus. Her pursuit of artistic transcendence through kathak soon becomes the organizing principle of her life, even as she leaves home for college and falls in complicated love with her best friend. As the uncertain future looms, she must ultimately confront the tensions between romantic love, her art, and the legacy of her own imperfect mother.    Lyrical and deeply sensual, with writing as mesmerizing as kathak itself, Shruti Swamy's The Archer is a bold portrait of a singular woman coming of age as an artist-navigating desire, duty, and the limits of the body. It is also an electrifying and utterly immersive story about the transformative power of art, and the possibilities that love can open when we're ready.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50396048228625,"sku":"CIN1616209909G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50396051702033,"sku":"CIN1616209909VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1616209909.jpg?v=1750927625"},{"product_id":"archer-book-shruti-swamy-9781643752549","title":"The Archer","description":"“[Swamy’s] prose is so assured . . . The Archer dazzles as it asks: How does a woman remain an artist?” —The New York Times Book Review Recommended by: BuzzFeed * The Millions * Book Riot * Literary Hub * Bookmarks * Ms.* Bookish * Goodreads * Library Journal * San Francisco Chronicle   FINALIST FOR THE CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE In this original and transfixing novel, Vidya comes of age in 1960s- and 1970s-era Bombay, her childhood marked by the shattering absence and then the bewildering reappearance of her mother and baby brother at the family home. Restless, observant, and longing for connection with her brilliant and increasingly troubled mother, Vidya one day peeks into a classroom where girls are learning kathak, a dazzling, centuries-old dance form that requires the utmost discipline and focus. Her pursuit of artistic transcendence and escape through kathak soon becomes the organizing principle of her life, even as she leaves home for college and falls in complicated love with her best friend. As the uncertain future looms, she must confront the tensions between romance, art, and the legacy of her own imperfect mother. Lyrical and deeply sensual, Shruti Swamy’s The Archer is a bold portrait of a singular woman striving toward life as an artist while navigating desire, duty, and the limits of the body. It is also an electrifying and utterly immersive story about the transformative power of art, and the possibilities that love can open when we’re ready.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50397085860113,"sku":"CIN1643752545VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50698384802065,"sku":"NGR9781643752549","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1643752545.jpg?v=1775728458"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-shruti-swamy.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}