If Not Theirs

"Simultaneously distant and intimate; between the cuts, leaps, refracted symbols and elliptical desires of ancient Tamil poetry and contemporary propositions in philosophy and poetry; between local geographies and landscapes of the mind; between 'vacancy' and the 'far side of the paradox;' wry, linguistically rich and playful but always in the context and awareness of loss; among and away from all these poles does Janani Ambikapathy's If Not Theirs stake its own particular ground. It is no simple hybrid but one of the most startling, deliberately asserted and wholly formed debuts I've read in years."

—Vivek Narayanan