House of Caravans

“Reminiscent of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth… [a] moving evocation of life before, during, and after Partition and the past’s immeasurable impact on the present.”

“Suneja weaves a tale that spans generations, centering on the trauma of the Partition and its rippling effects on a family trying to find its way back to one another. This is a promising debut.”

“Intense and evocative, this powerful debut historical saga recounts India’s partition throughout time to explore the profound intergenerational impacts of the event in nuanced and beautiful storytelling.”

“House of Caravans is an astonishing debut–the work of a master writer. Through finely wrought details and clever plotting, Shilpi Suneja illustrates how the reverberations of the 1947 Partition are felt across multiple generations. With her deft writing and her penetrating imagination, Suneja gifts us with a beautiful testament to the power of storytelling.”

 “Suneja’s novel is full of quiet, imperfect characters making hard choices in dire straits, who are aware of themselves as bigger than, and yet completely mired in, their circumstances. The power of this novel as a social novel—as a work of realism that shows the fate of the individual caught up in history—is that it shows how cruelly history treats individuals in the first place. Suneja’s representation of history and its effects effectively captures this miserable process. As a portrait of a family whose members have been caught up and then ground down by history, House of Caravans is a triumph of realism.”

“Told with sumptuous language and epic intensity, House of Caravans is a captivating, harrowing historical saga.”

“Tolstoyan in its scope, House of Caravans is a marvel of a novel. It copes with some major issues of our time, such as the mingling of races, colonization, rebellion, historical violence, migrations, and also love and remembrance. Shilpi Suneja writes with patience, subtlety, and intelligence. She is a genuine artist.”

“Grappling with themes of social injustice, immigrant life in the U.S., and the complicated bonds within extended families, Shilpi Suneja’s novel reveals a sincere, informed engagement with matters of political history and of human dignity.”

“These are characters I won’t forget, they burn with vivacity, and the scenes do too. I am happy to be among them… . This is a marvelous story and Shilpi Suneja’s voice livens it up.”

“Straddling two critical time periods of great violence and change on a global scale, Suneja’s novel weaves an intimate tale of two brothers—both brimming with regret, prejudice, sweetness and sorrow—as deftly as a spinner with golden thread. I can’t even begin to fully convey the complexities of this book—its richness, its tenderness, its intelligence—all in a story that pulls you into Suneja’s dreamy imagination. This is a novel that will make you marvel, think, and finally, break your heart.”

“A tale of kinship, violence, separation, and reunion, House of Caravans is rich and evocative, filled with unforgettable details of India at the end of colonial rule. The Partition is an enormous subject, and this is marvelous storytelling.”

“House of Caravans is an astonishing debut—the work of a master writer. Through finely wrought details and clever plotting, Shilpi Suneja illustrates how the reverberations of the 1947 Partition are felt across multiple generations. With her deft writing and her penetrating imagination, Suneja gifts us with a beautiful testament to the power of storytelling.”

“From intimate love stories to terrorist plots to the political intrigues of 1940s British India, Shilpi Suneja’s absorbing novel introduces a nuanced, sophisticated, and authentic voice that illustrates the human cost of colonialism and resilience of true love. Simultaneously set in 2002 and in the harrowing years before the violent creation of Muslim Pakistan and Hindu-majority India, House of Caravans recounts the story of four generations of a family whose members refuse to be defined by the limitations of their times, who dare to love and befriend across religious and class divides. This is a gorgeous and enjoyable tale, eschewing binary and easy definitions of identity, home, and family.”

”[House of Caravans] reminds us again and again that belonging has never been reducible to a simple choosing of sides.”