Silent Winds, Dry Seas
A Novel
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
ONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • A sweeping debut novel that explores the intimate struggle for independence and success of a young descendant of Indian indentured laborers in Mauritius, a small multiracial island in the Indian Ocean.
"The beauty of Busjeet's splendid, often breathtaking book is, like the best stories of journeys to young adulthood, the precious and well-observed and heartbreaking details of day-to-day life." --Edward P. Jones, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Known World
In the 1950s, Vishnu Bhushan is a young boy yet to learn the truth beyond the rumors of his family's fractured histories--an alliance, as his mother says, of two bankrupt families. In evocative chapters, the first two decades of Vishnu's life in Mauritius unfolds with heart wrenching closeness as he battles to experience the world beyond, and the cultural, political, and familial turmoil that hold on to him.
Through gorgeous and precise language, Silent Winds, Dry Seas conjures the spirit and rich life of Mauritius, even as its diverse peoples live under colonial rule. Weaving the soaring hopes, fierce love, and heart-breaking tragedies of Vishnu's proud Mauritian family together with his country's turbulent path to gain independence, Busjeet masterfully evokes the epic sweep of history in the intimate moments of a boy's life.
Silent Winds, Dry Seas is a poetic, powerful, and universal novel of identity and place, of the legacies of colonialism, of tradition, modernity, and emigration, and of what a family will sacrifice for its children to thrive.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set primarily on the island nation of Mauritius, Busjeet's inventive debut ping-pongs through time, combining poetic passages with linked tales to tell a story of family, politics, and yearning. When Vishnu Bhushan returns home from America to see his dying father after three decades away, his mother recalls her rocky first years of marriage, an anecdote that propels Vishnu to remember his own adolescence and young adulthood in the 1950s and '60s, some of which was spent living with his uncle Ram, who urged him to forge a future away from the island. But after Ram dies, Vishnu's father feuds with Ram's wife Ranee over inherited land, which threatens family unity and causes Vishnu to have a nervous breakdown. After recovering, Vishnu has his first sexual experience and lands a teaching job, yet when the time comes to travel for college, Vishnu is stymied by Mauritius's corrupt government, which awards scholarships to less deserving yet richer students, leading Vishnu and his father to embark on a hydra-headed attempt to plead his case. Throughout, Busjeet consistently dazzles with Vishnu's narration, conveying the character's developing maturity, creativity—several poems by the narrator cover his early years—and deep feeling for people even tangentially in his orbit. This showcases a remarkable and confident writer.
