Atlas of Unknowns -- Tania James, Paperback

An utterly irresistible first novel: The story of two sisters, the yearning to disappear into another country, and the powerful desire to return to the known world. - "Dazzling and deeply absorbing.... One of the most exciting debut novels since Zadie Smith's White Teeth." --San Francisco Chronicle

Linno is a gifted artist, despite a childhood accident that has left her badly maimed, and Anju is one of Kerala's most promising students. Both girls dream of coming to the United States, but it is Anju who wins a scholarship to a prestigious school in New York. She seizes it, even though it means lying and betraying her sister. When her lie is discovered, Anju disappears. Back in Kerala, Linno is undergoing a transformation of her own. But when she learns of Anju's disappearance, Linno strikes out farther still, with a scheme to procure a visa so that she can come to America to look for her sister and save them both.

Author: Tania James
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Published: 04/20/2010
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.56lbs
Size: 7.94h x 5.34w x 0.74d
ISBN: 9780307389015

Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 04/18/2010 pg. 28

About the Author
TANIA JAMES is the author of the novels The Tusk That Did the Damage and Atlas of Unknowns and the short story collection Aerogrammes. Her fiction has appeared in Boston Review, Granta, Guernica, One Story, A Public Space, and The Kenyon Review. She lives in Washington, D.C.