Ganesan, Indira As Sweet As Honey (Alfred A. Knopf, 2013)
Cover by Chris Silas Neal

Our Aunt Meterling stood over six feet tall, a giantess, a tree. From her limbs came large hands, which always held a shower of snacks for us children. We could place two of our feet in one of her sandals, and her green shawl made a roof to cover our play forts. We loved Meterling, because she was so devotedly freakish, because she rained everyone with affection, and because we felt that anyone that tall had to be supernaturally gifted….

Dear Friends,

In one month, my novel, As Sweet As Honey, will be available in the bookstores and on-line. If by any chance you want to reserve a copy by pre-ordering the book, you can go to the link below at Random House and choose from any of the bookstores (independent and commercial) listed. I am very excited about this book, my third in a sequence of novels that share a South Asian island setting, the imaginary island of Pi. As Sweet As Honey is about a very tall woman named who marries a very short man. The novel follows her life, as seen through the very curious and often very imaginative eyes of her young niece, within a family that cossets grief and ladles joy in generous amounts. I hope you enjoy the book when you read it.

As always,

Indira

From the Cover Flap:

…And there is a very tall South Asian heroine with the astonishing un-Indian name of Meterling, who has found love at last in the shape of a short, round Englishman elegant in white suits and pink ties. There are also numerous aunts, uncles and young cousins—among them Mina, grown now, and telling this story of a marriage ceremony that ends with a widowed bride who, in the midst of her grief, discovers she is pregnant.

From the Kirkus (Starred) Book Review:

The imaginary Indian coastal island of Pi, where Ganesan has set her previous fiction (Inheritance, 1998, etc.), works beautifully as the setting for this East Asian homage to To the Lighthouse, both the nostalgic recreation of a lost perfect moment and an exploration into Woolf’s “thousand shapes” of love.

To pre-order the book:

http://www.randomhouse.com/book/219620/as-sweet-as-honey-by-indira-ganesan

To “Like” the book on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/As-Sweet-Honey-Indira-Ganesan/dp/0307960447/