The archer

As in her lauded debut short story collection, A House Is a Body (2020), Swamy examines women's ownership of their very selves in her first novel, which is set in a disappeared Bombay. Swamy divides Vidya's young life into five distinct sections, focusing on pivotal developmental moments defined by her bonds (or lack thereof) with other women. She's initially nameless to herself while others are referred to as Aunt-Not-Mother and Father Sir as she's raised by an extended family while her mother is institutionalized. By part II, motherless Vidya has become caretaker to her father and younger brother, while an all-encompassing passion for kathak (an exacting form of classical Indian dance) allows her to reclaim her sense of "I." Part III places Vidya in college where her most significant relationship, beyond her kathak guru, is with a brilliant older girl. Then "I" becomes "we," with Vidya seemingly content in a nontraditional marriage until suddenly she's pregnant. Part V comes full circle as Vidya unexpectedly returns to her childhood home. Each segment challenges expectations and exposes the limitations of being female. Beyond adaptation, sacrifice, and even erasure, Swamy provides no easy answers to the search for fulfillment.

Swamy's affecting debut novel (after A House is a Body) follows a woman's interest in dance and self-determination after growing up in poverty in 1960s Northern India. At seven, after Vidya's father dies and her mother becomes an unreliable presence, she encounters a class of girls learning kathak, a form of Indian classical dance. By the time she's in her teens, Vidya has become a dedicated kathak pupil, devoted to the "wild, nearly unbearable pleasure" of dance. In college, she studies engineering while continuing to work every day with a new dance teacher from Bombay. Always set slightly apart from her peers by her poverty and intensity, Vidya is surprised by the depth of her connection to another student, the solitary and brilliant Radha. Swamy writes with keen perception of Vidya's anger and unyielding will to dance, despite her predicament (she never forgets that she is "dark, overeducated, unpedigreed"). Later in the book, after Vidya's brief romance with Radha, she marries a man from a very different socioeconomic class, a decision that further illustrates how the odds are stacked against her as a young woman attempting to live on her own terms. Swamy confidently evokes the time and place with spare, precise prose. This writer continues to demonstrate an impressive command of her craft. (Sept.)

An ancient dance form becomes a paradoxical route to escape for a girl growing up in poverty in India. Swamy's debut novel focuses on the life of Vidya, a girl growing up in Bombay in the 1960s. During her early childhood, her unhappy mother disappears twice, the second time for good. That leaves Vidya to raise her younger brother, Rishi, while their father works long hours. The girl is studious but shy and reserved, damaged by her mother's absence. Vidya's chief joy is her study of kathak, a rigorously traditional Indian dance form. Advancing in her skills, she becomes the student of an acclaimed dancer who is a demanding teacher. In college, studying for an engineering degree, Vidya encounters prejudice because of her low social class and dark skin as well as her gender. She also falls in love with Radha, another young woman, although neither of them can express their desires in word or action. Asked to perform a dance as part of an amateur theatrical, Vidya agrees. She hopes her dance will pierce Radha's heart, and it does, but it's fateful in unintended ways. The third portion of the book finds Vidya in an unlikely marriage to Rustom, the spoiled son of a wealthy family. Their union, and their choice to live in a seaside cottage apart from their families to pursue their artistic dreams--he's a poet--upends just about every expectation of Indian society. But another fateful event will bring Vidya full circle, confronting the life she tried to leave behind. Swamy's prose is incantatory and often lovely, swirling in dancelike rhythms that sweep the story along. She builds a complex character in Vidya, whose urge toward autonomy brings results that range from ecstatic to tragic. A young woman seeks freedom through art in a mesmerizing coming-of-age story. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.