After Love

$29.95

ISBN: 97819219243255 Format: 230 x 153mm, 304pp Rights: All rights: Transit Lounge Release / Publication Date: 01 /10 /2012
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Description

A haunting novel of love, betrayal and redemption, set in India, Russia and Italy.

Vasu, a young Indian student of architecture, arrives in Moscow in the late 1960s. He falls in love with Anna, an archaeologist and an accomplished cellist, yet his romanticism about the Soviet Union clashes with her experience. He goes back to India to design a village for a
co-operative of coffee farmers, but he cannot forget Anna and on his return they marry. Anna wants to leave Moscow but isn’t keen to go to India. They decide to go to Venice where Vasu has been offered a teaching position. In Italy their life unravels when Anna mysteriously disappears without a trace. Years later, Vasu discovers a painful but wonderful truth.

A beautifully written story full of music and emotions that moves with ease across continents, After Love is destined to touch the hearts of readers everywhere

Praise for Subhash Jaireth’s previous works

‘offers revelation …reveals a unique insight.’ Canberra Times

‘ultimately about the mystery of creation itself, the silence from which all things come.’ John Hughes

‘a lucid and pungent distillation of desire, longing and loss.’ Judith Beveridge

Subhash Jaireth was born in Punjab, India. Between 1969 and 1978 he spent nine years in Russia studying geology and Russian literature. In 1986 he migrated to Australia. He has published poetry in Hindi, English and Russian. His published works include Yashodhara: Six Seasons Without You (Wild Peony, 2003), Unfinished Poems for Your Violin (Penguin Australia, 1996), Golee Lagne Se Pahle (Before the Bullet Hit Me) (Vani Prakashan, 1994), To Silence: Three Autobiographies (Puncher& Wattmann, 2011), After Love (Transit Lounge, 2012), Moments (Puncher & Wattmann, 2014) and Incantations (Recent Work Press, 2016). A Catalan translation of the novel After Love was published in October 2018 in Valencia. He has also published English translations of Russian, Japanese and Persian poetry, and has translated poems of Indigenous Australian poets into Hindi.

Moving from 1960s Moscow through India and Venice to 1990s Sydney, Canberra–based Punjabi author Subhash Jaireth’s latest novel tells the story of Indian engineer Vasu and Russian cellist Anna’s ultimately doomed relationship. We know it’s doomed from the first page when Vasu, recalling their first meeting, says: “I wish it hadn’t happened .” Switching deftly between Anna and Vasu’s first-person viewpoints, featuring a strong supporting cast and set against a backdrop of social political upheaval, After Love is a haunting, delicately textured tale of love gone wrong and the right that can come of it. Superb.

William Yeoman, The West Australian 24-25 August 2013

Jaireth is a poet and autobiographer whose debut novel is about an unusual clash of cultures. Vasu is Indian, studying in Moscow in the 1960s. He falls in love with Anna, a Russian cellist. He is idealistic; life under Communism has made her realistic. The barriers against their love are great. They try to compromise by his not returning to India, but in Venice, she deserts him. Years later, they meet again. Subtle and affecting. 

Lucy Sussex, Melbourne Age, The Examiner, Goulburn Post, Newcastle Herald, The Guardian, South Coast Register, Central Western Daily, Yass Tribune  November 2012 

Languid and sad, this story of fated lovers slowly and inexorably gets under your skin.
Diane Dempsey, The Age, Canberra Times, Sydney Morning Herald  December 22, 2012

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It is a very rich and intricate novel, deceptively measured on the surface, but harbouring immense emotional tension and passion. I hope that this beautiful book is made available to readers outside of Australia, because it adds a unique voice and style to contemporary South Asian writing. 

Elen Turner, South Asia Book Blog 17 December 2012

The theme of love, the challenges that it represents, with the binding of two people’s needs, desires and beliefs, is written within the pages of this novel. After Love captures the disappointment and discontent that can sometimes affect relationships after the glow of new love fades. It is about what you can discover about yourself and the world once love dissipates.

Leanne Weymans, M/C Reviews  3 February 2013 www.media-culture.org.au