Awards

• Winner of Saltire Society Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2022 (UK)

Overview

THE SALTIRE'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR A GUARDIAN'S BEST MEMOIR AND BIOGRAPHY OF 2022 'Remarkable' - The Times 'Achingly beautiful' - Guardian Beautiful in unusual and wonderful ways' '- Rebecca Solnit This book is about two unlikely friends. One born in 1970s Britain to Indian immigrant parents, the other arrived from Nazi Germany in 1939, fleeing persecution. This is a story of migration, racism, family, belonging, grief and resilience. It is about the state we're in now and the ways in which we carry our pasts into our futures.

Full Product Details

9781838852696

Table of Contents

Reviews

Homelands is beautiful in unusual and wonderful ways, beyond the grace and magic when its prose rises almost to poetry. It is an extravagant exploration of the imaginative possibilities of empathy, of how a friendship can build a bridge across differences in origins and age, how you can enter into another life, why you should, what happens when you do -- REBECCA SOLNIT Remarkable * * The Times * * Achingly beautiful * * Guardian * * An utterly engrossing story that spans the twentieth century, surveying otherness, family and belonging, but above all friendship. I could not stop reading this gorgeous book -- DENISE MINA An eloquent testament to the tribulations of national belonging * * New Statesman * * A deeply reflective and moving account of a remarkable friendship that bridges a century. Homelands is at once meditative and urgent, humane and journalistic. I learned so much in these pages, and yet couldn't stop smiling at the simple strokes: the love, the kindness, the unlikely places friendship blooms -- DINA NAYERI It is Henry's life story which is the gripping heart of the matter . . . immersive * * Scotsman * * A spellbinding story of triumph and tragedy, war and sanctuary, emigration and belonging. Fans of Sebald and De Waal are going to love this -- GAVIN FRANCIS Homelands is dizzyingly ambitious . . . this profound, far-reaching novel journeys across continents and decades. Ramaswamy interweaves her family's history and Wuga's against a backdrop of their ongoing sorrows. There are moments when you wonder if she can sustain this trapeze act, but she swoops from setting to setting and decade to decade without ever losing her grip. Ramaswamy's grief floods the book, producing sentences that would rip your heart out * * Big Issue * * Extraordinary . . . personal and emotional . . . essential . . . Chitra Ramaswamy's and Henry Wuga's recollections would be compelling on their own, but by bringing them together we are encouraged to look at our own family history, and compare them with those of others. Homelands rightly proffers there is more that unites than divides * * Skinny * *

Remarkable * * The Times * * Achingly beautiful * * Guardian * * An utterly engrossing story that spans the twentieth century, surveying otherness, family and belonging, but above all friendship. I could not stop reading this gorgeous book -- DENISE MINA An eloquent testament to the tribulations of national belonging * * New Statesman * * A deeply reflective and moving account of a remarkable friendship that bridges a century. Homelands is at once meditative and urgent, humane and journalistic. I learned so much in these pages, and yet couldn't stop smiling at the simple strokes: the love, the kindness, the unlikely places friendship blooms -- DINA NAYERI It is Henry's life story which is the gripping heart of the matter . . . immersive * * Scotsman * * A spellbinding story of triumph and tragedy, war and sanctuary, emigration and belonging. Fans of Sebald and De Waal are going to love this -- GAVIN FRANCIS Homelands is dizzyingly ambitious . . . this profound, far-reaching novel journeys across continents and decades. Ramaswamy interweaves her family's history and Wuga's against a backdrop of their ongoing sorrows. There are moments when you wonder if she can sustain this trapeze act, but she swoops from setting to setting and decade to decade without ever losing her grip. Ramaswamy's grief floods the book, producing sentences that would rip your heart out * * Big Issue * * Extraordinary . . . personal and emotional . . . essential . . . Chitra Ramaswamy's and Henry Wuga's recollections would be compelling on their own, but by bringing them together we are encouraged to look at our own family history, and compare them with those of others. Homelands rightly proffers there is more that unites than divides * * Skinny * * Vivid storytelling * * Observer * *

Author Information

Chitra Ramaswamy is an award-winning journalist and author. Her first book, Expecting: The Inner Life of Pregnancy, won the Saltire First Book of the Year Award and was shortlisted for the Polari Prize. She has contributed essays to Antlers of Water, Nasty Women, The Freedom Papers, The Bi-ble and Message from the Skies. She is a TV critic for the Guardian, the restaurant critic for The Times Scotland, a columnist for the National Trust for Scotland and broadcasts regularly for BBC Radio Scotland. She lives in Edinburgh with her partner, two young children and rescue dog.@Chitgrrl

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