IN SEARCH OF LOST MEANING

Janice Pariat weaves a story of four people whose paths, though they never cross, are powered by a strong quest

- Latha Anantharaman

EVERYTHING THE LIGHT TOUCHES: A NOVEL

by Janice Pariat

FOURTH ESTATE

₹799, 512 pages

Whether in search of the holy grail, a dragon's hoard, or the source of the Nile, the quest remains a genre irresistible to readers. In Everything the Light Touches (2022), Janice Pariat crafts a classic narrative with four characters all in search of something-nested like Russian dolls, two fictional and two historical.

The recently unemployed Shai opens the story, flying out of Delhi to see her parents in Shillong. She soon leaves them for the remote village where her old nanny is nearing death. And there she stops, searching for something.