Book Review | The Book of Everlasting Things by Aanchal Malhotra

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Title: The Book of Everlasting Things

Author: Aanchal Malhotra

Genre: romance, historical fiction

Published: December 2022

Pages: 480 (hardcover)

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Book Synopsis

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On a January morning in 1938, Samir Vij first locks eyes with Firdaus Khan through the rows of perfume bottles in his family’s ittar shop in Lahore. Over the years that follow, the perfumer’s apprentice and calligrapher’s apprentice fall in love with their ancient crafts and with each other, dreaming of the life they will one day share. But as the struggle for Indian independence gathers force, their beloved city is ravaged by Partition. Suddenly, they find themselves on opposite sides: Samir, a Hindu, becomes Indian and Firdaus, a Muslim, becomes Pakistani, their love now forbidden. Severed from one another, Samir and Firdaus make a series of fateful decisions that will change the course of their lives forever. As their paths spiral away from each other, they must each decide how much of the past they are willing to let go, and what it will cost them.

Lush, sensuous, and deeply romantic, The Book of Everlasting Things is the story of two lovers and two nations, split apart by forces beyond their control, yet bound by love and memory. Filled with exquisite descriptions of perfume and calligraphy, spanning continents and generations, Aanchal Malhotra’s debut novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

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Review

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There are many places I can begin to describe The Book of Everlasting Things. I could dive into the sheer strength of its characters in the face of seemingly insurmountable trials or gush about the simple yet intricate details with which each scene is described. However, I will begin at the beginning, the core of the book, the thing of greatest importance in this story: love.

The world of Hindustan is first detailed through the nose of Malhotra's first main character, Samir Vij. It is also in this chapter that the reader is introduced to Malhotra's style of writing, strong yet delicately formulated, much like Samir's first love... perfume. This is shown by the extensive descriptions of perfume, emphasizing its importance. Malhotra carefully balances the tasks of providing intricate detail with not becoming too boring. While she does border on the edge many times throughout the story, I believe there may be a reason for this. Whether it was intentional or not, it becomes a very effective part of the plot. This detail also helps us feel love for something else. Love for Hindustan, love for the city of Lahore in which Samir is raised, love for the unity of many people despite their differing religions as this past world we explore through Samir's eyes and nose. Such love that Malhotra cultivates within both the characters and us as readers is something we feel so painfully in our hearts at the violent partition of the beloved Hindustan.

Moving forward into chapter six, we are introduced to the second main character, Firdaus Khan. As the year is 1938, Hindustan has not yet been partitioned, and girls are raised with a much more restricted life than they are today. Yet, we see that Firdaus has found her own first love in a field dominated almost entirely by men... calligraphy. Firdaus' story also gently addresses the issue women's struggles without becoming feminist. Firdaus is raised no differently than a boy, but consequences of such a childhood during a time when it was so rare come about later on in the story, during the partition. To describe it in Firdaus' words, "she now understood what she had bartered the moment she picked up that first qalam. Her freedom" (194). Reading of her journey as a calligraphy student and close companion to her father, I wanted desperately for her freedom to be true freedom. Like Firdaus, however, I realized as her story progressed how difficult it was for a girl raised so freely to fit into a society that often failed to acknowledge that.

While Firdaus is focused on less through the entire story, she is by no means less important and having less focus on her helps to secure one primary main character. Having a primary main character focused on more than the secondary helps readers be less confused, and this was certainly helpful in such a complex story. This complexity comes from Malhotra's inclusion of themes such as different forms of PTSD, war, love, freedom, imprisonment, and trauma. Each theme is addressed in nearly equal amounts, and yet never overpower one another. Instead, they are woven together to present huge tapestries of each person, each individual story, and each tapestry is able to blend seamlessly with the other. They are explored deeply and thoroughly and without judgement, even indirectly, from the author.

Each theme gradually changes Samir and Firdaus as their world also changes. The beginning is long and peaceful, almost to the point of being too peaceful. Samir and Firdaus bask in the glow of young love. It is also a mature love. For those looking for smut, it is entirely absent here. How beautiful is their love that even though they are young, I became invested in their future together. As they grew older and looked back on their young love, there was no semblance of anything akin to pedophilia, which some books accidentally show. Rather than a desire when thinking of a younger Firdaus, Samir is nostalgic. It is the same Firdaus. She recalls with nostalgia Samir's face and his expressions to her. Never is there any sexual desire included in these scenes. Such delicate and potentially catastrophic scenes executed so perfectly left me loving how they loved each other.

There are wrongs and rights that each character commits and realizes. No character is entirely good or entirely bad. They just are, and it's up to the reader to either justify them in their own minds or be angered toward them, as I sometimes did. There are times when I wanted to grab that character by the shoulders, shake him and scream, "What on earth are you doing?!" only to realize that within the circumstances, I don't know how I would've done differently. The characters are personable, real, tangible. Their emotions and their whole beings are so human that it's almost as though I was reading a biography rather than a fictional story. I could feel each joy, pain, and everything in between acutely.

If I could put this story of this book into one word, it would be love. Love for perfume and calligraphy, love for community and country, and the enduring young love of Samir and Firdaus. I would also describe it as pain, pain so sharp at the partition, pain so crippling at the consequences of it, pain through the lives of Samir and Firdaus. It is a deeply moving and beautiful story, encompassing generations from Samir and Firdaus' grandparents and parents to their own grandchildren. I cannot recommend this wonderous novel enough. It will truly pull you in and hold you close until the end, when you will turn the final page and feel as though even you have changed.

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Personal Rating: 4/5