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Synopsis
In her first novel since the widely praised Baumgartner's Bombay, Anita Desai brilliantly evokes spiritual India in all its endless complexity, and examines the nature of pilgrimage through the aspirations and adventures of three superbly realized characters.
Matteo and Sophie join the 1970s flight of young Europeans to India. Matteo -- Italian, raised in the luscious countryside around Lake Como, restless since childhood -- has been introduced by a tutor to Hermann Hesse's The Journey to the East, and it opens in him a desperate longing. Sophie -- German, practical, worldly -- is willing to follow him to the ends of the earth.
In India, together they visit swamis, gurus, ashrams -- always searching. Matteo is seeking spiritual enlightenment, but for Sophie fulfillment lies in earthly love. And when they meet a holy woman known as the Mother, the differences between them seem to explode.
When we learn the Mother's story, we see it as an earlier version of their own -- the story of a young girl growing up in Cairo and finding her way East by joining a troupe of Indian dancers she has met in Europe. Her journey, a young woman's daring progress through Paris and Venice and New York, until she finds her moment of transcendence in India, comments on, and gives added breadth to, the young couple's quest.
In telling what happens to Matteo and Sophie and the mother, Anita Desai gives us a novel of great richness, an extraordinary vision of a country, and a compassionate portrait of people struggling to find a spiritual home. Journey to Ithaca is her most powerful and most involving novel.
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From the Back Cover
"A daring, colorful novel almost impossible to absorb in one reading... Anita Desai is a fluent artist, working from one vivid salience to the next. She knows the different lights of India, and she sees everything under the sun."
-- Paul West, The New York Times Book Review
"A triumph... What distinguishes the voice of Anita Desai is the physical intensity of her prose, the range of her capacious intelligence, her unsentimental compassion... Her work is an illumination and a blessing."
-- Pearl K. Bell, The New Republic
"A rich tapestry of the contemporary human condition in an alien environment ... Desai creates images rooted in the external environment that leave indelible imprints on our internal landscapes."
-- Mandira Sen, San Francisco Chronicle
"Powerful...a wonder of exquisitely crafted prose. As she piles detail upon detail, the intensity of India is seamlessly conjured up."
-- Judith Weinraub, Washington Post Book World
"A marvelous writer ... The book is exhilaratingly alive."
-- Esther Harriott, New York Newsday
About the Author
Anita Desai was born in Mussorie, India, and was educated in Delhi. Her published works include short stories, children's books, and nine novels. Two of her novels, Clear Light of Day (1980) and In Custody (1984), were short-listed for England's celebrated Booker Prize. In Custody has recently been made into a full-length feature film by Merchant Ivory Productions.
Anita Desai teaches in the writing program at MIT and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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- PublisherKnopf
- Publication date1995
- ISBN 10 0679439005
- ISBN 13 9780679439004
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages312
- Rating
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Journey to Ithaca
Published by
Alfred A. Knopf Incorporated, New York, New York, USA, 1995
ISBN 10: 0679439005
ISBN 13: 9780679439004
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Hard Cover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First American Edition. CA3 - A hard cover first American edition withdrawn ex-library book in very good condition with a dust jacket in very good condition. Stated first American edition. A tight, clean, sound copy in orange paper covered boards quarter bound in gray cloth with silver lettering on the spine and silver lettering and graphics on the front with very minor overall shelf wear plus the dust jacket endflaps are glued to the inside surfaces of the boards plus there are the usual library stamps and label on the top outside paper edges, front endpaper, and title page. The dust jacket shows minor overall shelf wear mainly in the form of some fading along the spine plus there is a library label on the back plus the endflaps are glued to the inside surfaces of the boards plus it is still in the original library mylar sleeve. A novel that evokes spiritual India in all its complexity and examines the nature of pilgrimage through the aspirations and adventures of two visiting Europeans and an Egyptian expatriot living in India. Two of the author's novels were short-listed for the Booker Prize and "In Custody" has been made into a Merchant Ivory film. By the author of "Cry, the Peacock," "Voices in the City," "Bye-Bye, Blackbird," "Village by the Sea," "In Custody," and "Baumgartner's Bombay." 312p. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Ex-Library. Seller Inventory # SCW07433
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Journey to Ithaca
Published by
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1995
ISBN 10: 0679439005
ISBN 13: 9780679439004
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Journey to Ithaca
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ISBN 10: 0679439005
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Journey to Ithaca
Published by
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ISBN 10: 0679439005
ISBN 13: 9780679439004
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Journey to Ithaca
Published by
Alfred A. Knopf Incorporated, New York, NY, 1995
ISBN 10: 0679439005
ISBN 13: 9780679439004
Used
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Hardcover. Condition: Very Good+. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good+. First American Edition. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Seller Inventory # 552098h
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