Read This Book . . .

Samir grows up in the 1930s in Lahore. He spends his childhood working in the family business creating and selling perfume. He’s only ten when he first sees Firdaus, a young Muslim girl, the daughter of a calligrapher. She looks up, and sees him too. They are both smitten. But before they reach adulthood, their world splits apart. In 1947, the Great Partition splits apart India and Pakistan. Now Samir and Firdaus find themselves on separate sides of the divide. Over the decades, across several wars that impacted the South Asian continent, Samir and Firdaus find themselves separated by so much more than space and time.

I love an epic, historical family saga, and The Book of Everlasting Things delivers. Malhotra has created a lush story with characters who you love spending hundreds of pages with. There’s something entrancing about such an incredible story that features so many winding storylines and plot twists. 

There’s something special about learning about rare professions. As Samir learns more about becoming a perfumer, so do we as readers. I know nothing about how perfume is made or the science about it. But over the course of Samir’s education, we, the readers, learn more about the different kinds of perfumes, each of which is known as a composition. Firdaus is a trained calligrapher, so we learn it with her as she masters different scripts and languages.

Deepti Gupta performs the audiobook, creating an incredible atmosphere as we follow their story through the decades. Gupta performs the story as it winds its way through narrative, historical, and diary-like portions of the novel. For hours and hours, I found myself completely engrossed in the story.

If you’re looking for a historical fiction novel that will take you on an incredible journey, look no further. The Book of Everlasting Things is a book you won’t want to miss.