Half Gods

Name: Half Gods
Brand: Macmillan Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Akil Kumarasamy
ISBN: 9781427298683

Author: Akil Kumarasamy

Narrator: Priya Ayyar, Vikas Adam

Unabridged: 6 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Published: 06/05/2018

Categories: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Short Stories

Synopsis

A startlingly beautiful audiobook debut, Half Gods by Akil Kumarasamy brings together the exiled, the disappeared, the seekers

Following the fractured origins and destinies of two brothers named after demigods from the ancient epic the Mahabharata, we meet a family struggling with the reverberations of the past in their lives. These ten interlinked stories redraw the map of our world in surprising ways: following an act of violence, a baby girl is renamed after a Hindu goddess but raised as a Muslim; a lonely butcher from Angola finds solace in a family of refugees in New Jersey; a gentle entomologist, in Sri Lanka, discovers unexpected reserves of courage while searching for his missing son.

By turns heartbreaking and fiercely inventive, Half Gods reveals with sharp clarity the ways that parents, children, and friends act as unknowing mirrors to each other, revealing in their all-too human weaknesses, hopes, and sorrows a connection to the divine.

About Akil Kumarasamy

Akil Kumarasamy is the author of the linked story collection Half Gods, which was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice, was awarded the Bard Fiction Prize and the Story Prize Spotlight Award, and was a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection. Her work has appeared in Harper’s Magazine, American Short Fiction, BOMB, and other publications. She has received fellowships from the University of East Anglia, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Yaddo, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. She is an assistant professor in the Rutgers University-Newark MFA program.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Blaine on August 15, 2018

4.5/5 I'm actually surprised I'm rating it this highly since I almost put it down in the beginning, but this is a beautifully written collection of short stories that deserves some accolades. Not every story hits the mark, although all of them are gorgeous, but some packed a punch and left me staring......more

Goodreads review by DeeJah on June 06, 2018

Half Gods is a remarkable book that weaves a collection of stories together containing ancient and modern-day themes. The common thread is Family, survival and moving through the complex arrays of living, healing, preserving the beauty of a culture ravaged by war while healing and moving forward thr......more

Goodreads review by Kathleen on May 28, 2018

Fascinating and passionate set of linked short stories about a Sri Lankan family. Not all of the 10 stories soar equally but they are all beautifully written. I'm not sure whether I liked the insight into life in Sri Lanka or into the lives of the family members in the US more but I do know they all......more

Goodreads review by Nancy on May 25, 2018

The connected stories in Half Gods by Akil Kumarasamy create an intergenerational history of an Indian Tamil family from the first generation who left India to work in the tea estates of Sri Lanka to children born in America. The stories are heart-breaking, some addressing the discrimination and mur......more

Quotes

"These are evocative, tender stories that mourn personal loss and celebrate the possibilities of hope in immigrant life." -AudioFile