Winner of the Silver Nautilus Award for Journalism & Investigative
Reporting
"Elizabeth Flock takes us on an intimate cruise on the shifting sea of
the heart, in the best book set in Bombay that I've read in years.
Flock's total access to her characters, and her highly sympathetic and
nonjudgmental gaze, prove that love and literature know no borders.
Easily the most intimate account of India that I've read, and of value
to anybody that believes in love and marriage."--Suketu Mehta, author of
Maximum City
"This remarkable debut is so deeply reported, elegantly written, and
profoundly transporting that it reads like a novel you can't put down.
It's both a nuanced and intimate evocation of Indian culture, and a
provocative and exciting meditation on marriage itself."--Katie Roiphe,
author of The Violet Hour
In the vein of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, an intimate, deeply
reported and revelatory examination of love, marriage, and the state of
modern India--as witnessed through the lives of three very different
couples in today's Mumbai.
In twenty-first-century India, tradition is colliding with Western
culture, a clash that touches the lives of everyday Indians from the
wealthiest to the poorest. While ethnicity, class, and religion are
influencing the nation's development, so too are pop culture and
technology--an uneasy fusion whose impact is most evident in the
institution of marriage.
The Heart Is a Shifting Sea introduces three couples whose
relationships illuminate these sweeping cultural shifts in dramatic
ways: Veer and Maya, a forward-thinking professional couple whose union
is tested by Maya's desire for independence; Shahzad and Sabeena, whose
desperation for a child becomes entwined with the changing face of
Islam; and Ashok and Parvati, whose arranged marriage, made possible by
an online matchmaker, blossoms into true love. Though these three
middle-class couples are at different stages in their lives and come
from diverse religious backgrounds, their stories build on one another
to present a layered, nuanced, and fascinating mosaic of the universal
challenges, possibilities, and promise of matrimony in its present
state.
Elizabeth Flock has observed the evolving state of India from inside
Mumbai, its largest metropolis. She spent close to a decade getting to
know these couples--listening to their stories and living in their
homes, where she was privy to countless moments of marital joy,
inevitable frustration, dramatic upheaval, and whispered confessions and
secrets. The result is a phenomenal feat of reportage that is both an
enthralling portrait of a nation in the midst of transition and an
unforgettable look at the universal mysteries of love and marriage that
connect us all.
