title: The Age of Shiva: A Novel
author:  Manil Suri 
description: The second novel from Suri (The Death of Vishnu) follows Meera Sawhney from her unhappy 1950s marriage to aspiring singer Dev Arora through to her own son's coming-of-age. After an impulsive act forces Meera's marriage at 17, her complex, controlling father decries her tying herself (and, by extension, her family) to the provincial, lower-class Aroras. Meera soon finds herself pulled in different directions by her in-laws' religious orthodoxy, her father's progressivism (which doesn't run deep), her husband's self-pitying alcoholism and her own resentment. She finds salvation in the birth of a son, Ashvin; mother love, which Suri describes in intensely physical terms, gives her life passion and purpose, and overwhelms her adult relationships. But as India modernizes, Meera senses that Ashvin, and she herself, must live their own lives. Suri renders Meera's perspective marvelously, especially in small particulars (such as Meera's deliberations around the cutting of Ashvin's hair) and in the perils and conflicts Meera faces in her relationships with men. He also takes a close look at Hindu practices and charts the rise of religious nationalism in the years following Gandhi's death. Suri's vivid portrait of a woman in post-independence India engages timeless themes of self-determination. <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Cover](images/cover.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## The City of Devi
  
  
    
  
  
  ### Manil Suri
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  **From the author of _The Death of Vishnu_ , “a big, pyrotechnic… ambitious…
  ingenious” ( _Wall Street Journal_ ) novel.**
  
  
  
  
  
  Mumbai has emptied under the threat of imminent nuclear annihilation; gangs of
  marauding Hindu and Muslim thugs rove the desolate streets; yet Sarita can
  think of only one thing: buying the last pomegranate that remains in perhaps
  the entire city. She is convinced that the fruit holds the key to reuniting
  her with her physicist husband, Karun, who has been mysteriously missing for
  more than a fortnight.
  
  
  Searching for his own lover in the midst of this turmoil is Jaz—cocky,
  handsome, and glib. “The Jazter,” as he calls himself, is Muslim, but his true
  religion has steadfastly been sex with men. Dodging danger at every step, both
  he and Sarita are inexorably drawn to Devi ma, the patron goddess who has
  reputedly appeared in person to save her city. W