The Atlas of Reds and Blues

A Novel

Fiction & Literature, Literary, Contemporary Women
Cover of the book The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar, Counterpoint
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Devi S. Laskar ISBN: 9781640091542
Publisher: Counterpoint Publication: February 5, 2019
Imprint: Counterpoint Language: English
Author: Devi S. Laskar
ISBN: 9781640091542
Publisher: Counterpoint
Publication: February 5, 2019
Imprint: Counterpoint
Language: English

"Devi S. Laskar's The Atlas of Reds and Blues is as narratively beautiful as it is brutal. In prose that moves between cushioning characters' falls and ushering our understandings of characters' utopias, Laskar creates a world where the consequences of American terror never stop reverberating. I've never read a novel that does nearly as much in so few pages. Laskar has changed how we will all write about state-sanctioned terror in this nation." —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy

"The entire novel takes place over the course of a single morning, as Mother lies waiting for help, and the effect is devastatingly potent." —Marie Claire

When a woman—known only as Mother—moves her family from Atlanta to its wealthy suburbs, she discovers that neither the times nor the people have changed since her childhood in a small Southern town. Despite the intervening decades, Mother is met with the same questions: Where are you from? No, where are you really from? The American-born daughter of Bengali immigrants, she finds that her answer—Here—is never enough.

Mother's simmering anger breaks through one morning, when, during a violent and unfounded police raid on her home, she finally refuses to be complacent. As she lies bleeding from a gunshot wound, her thoughts race from childhood games with her sister and visits to cousins in India, to her time in the newsroom before having her three daughters, to the early days of her relationship with a husband who now spends more time flying business class than at home.

The Atlas of Reds and Blues grapples with the complexities of the second-generation American experience, what it means to be a woman of color in the workplace, and a sister, a wife, and a mother to daughters in today's America. Drawing inspiration from the author's own terrifying experience of a raid on her home, Devi S. Laskar's debut novel explores, in exquisite, lyrical prose, an alternate reality that might have been.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

"Devi S. Laskar's The Atlas of Reds and Blues is as narratively beautiful as it is brutal. In prose that moves between cushioning characters' falls and ushering our understandings of characters' utopias, Laskar creates a world where the consequences of American terror never stop reverberating. I've never read a novel that does nearly as much in so few pages. Laskar has changed how we will all write about state-sanctioned terror in this nation." —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy

"The entire novel takes place over the course of a single morning, as Mother lies waiting for help, and the effect is devastatingly potent." —Marie Claire

When a woman—known only as Mother—moves her family from Atlanta to its wealthy suburbs, she discovers that neither the times nor the people have changed since her childhood in a small Southern town. Despite the intervening decades, Mother is met with the same questions: Where are you from? No, where are you really from? The American-born daughter of Bengali immigrants, she finds that her answer—Here—is never enough.

Mother's simmering anger breaks through one morning, when, during a violent and unfounded police raid on her home, she finally refuses to be complacent. As she lies bleeding from a gunshot wound, her thoughts race from childhood games with her sister and visits to cousins in India, to her time in the newsroom before having her three daughters, to the early days of her relationship with a husband who now spends more time flying business class than at home.

The Atlas of Reds and Blues grapples with the complexities of the second-generation American experience, what it means to be a woman of color in the workplace, and a sister, a wife, and a mother to daughters in today's America. Drawing inspiration from the author's own terrifying experience of a raid on her home, Devi S. Laskar's debut novel explores, in exquisite, lyrical prose, an alternate reality that might have been.

More books from Counterpoint

Cover of the book Bringing It to the Table by Devi S. Laskar
Cover of the book Summer Doorways by Devi S. Laskar
Cover of the book Lucky You by Devi S. Laskar
Cover of the book Between My Father and the King by Devi S. Laskar
Cover of the book Crashing the Party by Devi S. Laskar
Cover of the book Pitiful Criminals by Devi S. Laskar
Cover of the book Dear Dawn by Devi S. Laskar
Cover of the book The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry by Devi S. Laskar
Cover of the book Black Hole by Devi S. Laskar
Cover of the book Last of the Curlews by Devi S. Laskar
Cover of the book Nathan Coulter by Devi S. Laskar
Cover of the book Sex, Economy, Freedom, & Community by Devi S. Laskar
Cover of the book Manazuru by Devi S. Laskar
Cover of the book White Fever by Devi S. Laskar
Cover of the book Still Life with Insects by Devi S. Laskar
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy