Vega Gopalan is adrift. Still reeling from the death of her sister years earlier, she leaves South India to attend graduate school at Columbia University. In New York, Vega straddles many different worlds, eventually moving in and out of a series of relationships that take her through the striving world of academia, the intellectual isolation of the immigrant suburbs, and, ultimately, the loneliness of single motherhood. But it is the birth of Vega\u2019s daughter that forces the novel\u2019s central question: What does it mean to make a home?
Written with dry humor and searing insight, Habitations<\/em> is an intimate story of identity, immigration, expectation and desire, and of love lost and found. But it is also a universal story of womanhood, and the ways in which women are forced to navigate multiple loyalties: to family, to community, and to themselves.
A profound meditation on the many meanings of home and on the ways love and kinship can be found, even in the most unfamiliar of places, Habitations<\/em> introduces Sheila Sundar as an electrifying new voice in literary fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About the Author<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Sheila Sundar<\/strong> is a professor of English and creative writing at the University of Mississippi. Her writing has appeared in\u00a0The<\/em>\u00a0Virginia Quarterly Review<\/em>,\u00a0The<\/em>\u00a0Massachusetts Review<\/em>,\u00a0The Threepenny Review<\/em>, andelsewhere.\u00a0<\/em>She lives in New Orleans with her husband and their three children.\u00a0Habitations\u00a0<\/em>is her debut novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSundar\u2019s debut novel is a wondrous mix of quiet heartache and unexpected hope<\/strong>, making it the best kind of literary fiction.\u2026 Sundar\u2019s focus on the evolution of Vega\u2019s inner and outer lives through relationships brings a vitally important lens to the thematic preoccupations of roots, home, migrant identity, and motherhood.\u00a0The crisp plot and uncluttered writing make\u00a0Habitations<\/em>\u00a0a remarkable first novel<\/strong>.\u201d\u2014Booklist<\/em><\/strong> Event is at 5:30 PM at Off Square Books A young academic moves from India to the United<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":137635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2239],"tags":[8323,5,13759,4,24519,602,655],"class_list":["post-137634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-literary-events","tag-melissa-ginsburg","tag-mississippi","tag-off-square-books-2","tag-oxford","tag-sheila-sundar","tag-square-books","tag-university-of-mississippi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Sheila-Sundar-scaled.jpg?fit=1707%2C2560&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137637,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137634\/revisions\/137637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Advance Praise<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSundar debuts with an\u00a0earnest meditation on an Indian American graduate student\u2019s grief, loneliness, and longing<\/strong>\u2026\u00a0a fresh perspective on the pressures of motherhood and desire for self-fulfillment<\/strong>\u2026 This leaves readers with much to chew on.\u201d\u00a0\u2013Publisher’s Weekly<\/em><\/strong>
\u201cA debut novel that\u00a0explores the contours of grief and globalization with conviction<\/strong>\u2026. The story unfolds episodically, in a good way; in Sundar\u2019s hands,\u00a0the scenes tumble together hypnotically.\u00a0<\/strong>The book captures a moment in time\u2014before smartphones and social media as we know them today\u2014among a particular set of people who cross international borders for higher education and enticing opportunities. The catch is that their lives can be as circumscribed by capricious visa policies and systemic prejudices as by any personal limitations.\u00a0This yields a sense of transience; Sundar captures the cascades of smaller griefs as Vega and the people in her universe develop close ties when they overlap in cities and on campuses, then move on for coursework, jobs, fellowships, and family<\/strong>.\u201d\u2014Kirkus Reviews<\/em><\/strong>
\u201cSheila Sundar\u2019s\u00a0irresistible debut<\/strong>\u00a0is a provocative meditation on grief, desire, and the unexpected ways the two entangle.\u00a0Brimming with emotional intricacies, crisp prose, and sly humor, HABITATIONS traverses the complicated, intimate politics and promises of the places we seek to call \u201chome<\/strong>.\u2019\u201d\u2014DEESHA PHILYAW, author of National Book Award Finalist\u00a0The Secret Lives of Church Ladies<\/em><\/strong>
\u201cHabitations\u00a0<\/em>is a\u00a0delightful novel, written with immediacy, warmth, and wry humor<\/strong>. Covering dramas both personal and universal, Sundar offers insightful reflections on the desire for arrival and the longing for return.\u00a0This is a significant addition to migrant fiction.\u201d\u2014HA JIN, author of National Book Award winner\u00a0Waiting<\/em><\/strong>
\u201cA\u00a0striking reflection<\/strong>\u00a0on migration, family, loss and home, and a vital portrait of race in American academia.\u00a0Through sharp, up-close narration<\/strong>, we share Vega Gopalan’s piercing observations about the world that surrounds her, and the friends, loves, and city-dwelling strangers that come to shape her life as she tries to find her place in it.\u201d\u2014MECCA JAMILAH SULLIVAN, author of\u00a0Big Girl<\/em><\/strong>
\u201cMasterful storytelling. A sweeping, immersive and utterly perfect debut of a new talent and a fresh perspective on the Indian diaspora<\/strong>. In its multilayered, nuanced way, this novel will teach you about the strength of family, the force of love, the power of hope and the resilience of spirit. In other words,\u00a0HABITATIONS will take you fearlessly by the hand and remind you of the purpose of living<\/strong>.\u201d\u2014WEIKE WANG, author of\u00a0Chemistry\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Joan is Okay<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/habitations.jpg?ssl=1\")
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