The Book of Everlasting Things

The 1947 partition of India serves as the backdrop for this sweeping literary epic about the forbidden love of two Lahore residents. Samir, a young Hindu perfumer, falls instantly in love with Firdaus, a Muslim calligraphy apprentice, when Firdaus and her family walk into his family’s store in 1938. The couple’s families become friends, until political tensions force them apart and they tragically end up living countries away from each other. Listeners will learn much about the lives of Indian soldiers in British wars through Samir’s family journals, as well as how perfumes and inks are created. The novel serves as a poetic love letter to the people and culture of South Asia while displaying how colonialism tore the region apart. This is Malhotra’s debut novel, but the Delhi-based historian has written two nonfiction titles about Partition, including Remnants of a Separation. The excellent audio production uses Indian music to open and close the epic, and narrator Deepti Gupta speaks with a lovely Indian accent that listeners will acclimate to easily. Samir spends much of his life in Paris and Grasse, and Gupta flawlessly integrates French words and phrases.