The Unbroken Coast
A Novel
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A stunning debut novel set in and around a Mumbai fishing village that follows the friendship between a young girl struggling to find her place in the world, and an aging historian reckoning with his past.
On the night his granddaughter is born in America, Professor Francis Almeida rides a bicycle through his quiet Catholic neighborhood in a suburb of Mumbai. It is 1978. He has recently retired, his grown children are scattered across the globe, and for the first time in decades, he is not sure what he should do next. A few streets from his home, in the heart of a Koli fishing village, he encounters a young mother praying for her baby daughter, ill with dengue fever, at the shrine of Our Lady of Navigators. He hopes the child will live.
Nearly a decade later, Francis meets the child again. She is Celia, daughter of a fisherman who is running from a debt collector. When an accident brings their families together, both Celia and Francis find themselves with unexpected new allies.
Spanning the turbulent years when Bombay became Mumbai, at time when environmental and economic pressures are just beginning to change the fortunes of indigenous fisherfolk, The Unbroken Coast is a lyrical novel that explores memory, faith, storytelling, and the nature of home.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Family, memory, and shifting tides shape Nalini Jones’ quietly powerful debut novel, set in a Mumbai fishing village. On the night Francis Almeida becomes a grandfather, he pedals his bicycle through his quiet neighborhood, unaware he’s about to cross paths with a baby girl whose life will intertwine with his own. Years later, that same girl, Celia, crashes into his bike and winds up under the care of Francis and his wife, while her fisherman father scrambles to avoid debt collectors. With tradition colliding with the forces of modernization against the richly textured backdrop of 1980s Mumbai (then called Bombay), Jones captures the slow unraveling of Francis’ memory with heartbreaking subtlety. Celia’s coming-of-age story is equally potent, marked by both resilience and heartbreak. As each character seeks comfort in the other’s presence, their evolving connection forms the emotional core of this deeply felt story of connection, change, and the meaning of home.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jones's scintillating debut traces the bonds between two families in a Catholic community outside Bombay across several decades. In 1978, Francis Almeida, a retired history professor, rides his bike from his Santa Clara suburb to the nearby fishing village of Varuna. While visiting a storied shrine, he has a chance encounter with Flora D'Mello, the wife of a fisherman, whose toddler, Celia, is sick with dengue fever. Several years later, when eight-year-old Celia is skipping school because her family cannot afford new shoes for her, Francis accidentally runs her over on his bike, breaking her arm. He takes her to his home to rest, which sparks the families' long-running relationship. Francis's wife, Essie, finds satisfaction in giving Celia hand-me-down clothes from her granddaughter, and in turn receives a better price on fish. Eventually, Celia marries, but her life takes a turn for the worse when she loses her mother and her first child within months of each other. As both families experience their share of heartbreaks and joys, Jones effectively underscores how chance encounters can tie a community together. Her approach never feels contrived, but instead evokes the fluid motion of real life. This satisfies.
