“…twelve masterfully told tales…”*   —Publishers Weekly

These poignant stories finely depict the lives of immigrants, through the themes of family adjustment, loss, and starting afresh in a new place. Set in suburban Toronto, New Jersey, Texas, and India, they draw out the conflicts in three generations of Indians whose lives interconnect even as they straddle the old and the new. What we sense is both the anguish of loss and the thrill of discovery.

Viswanathan’s quiet prose imparts powerful emotions that ring true, and her rendering of cultural clash is truly skillful and nuanced. The depiction of her characters’ interior lives is so full and vital that they breathe and walk off the page. The reader is drawn in and completely absorbed into her world of transitions.

*“Viswanathan’s debut collection–set in locales as diverse as India, Texas, and Canada–comprises twelve masterfully told tales. The stories are brimming with compelling and complex characters, like Ammini (“Brittle”), an old woman with a mysteriously painful past who has been reduced to gumming coveted peanut brittle in a pantry and playing house with a child; and Bora, a modern, aspiring monk whose mental training is catalogued in “Bee Mind Lotus Bud.” The strongest story is by far the titular “Lingering Tide,” whose tight and sparing narrative illuminates the 45-year marriage of Surya and his late wife Uma. Like Divya in “Eclipse,” Viswanathan’s life spent “spanning continents [and] skipping oceans” (as a journalist, copywriter, editor, and teacher, she’s lived in London, Manila, Montreal, and more) makes these stories strikingly vivid and memorable.”
 

—Publishers weekly
 

“I have read a number of works by Indian or Indian-American writers and find Latha’s among the best. She has such a sympathetic but unsparing view of the interface between two cultures, and an eye for detail that draws the reader in immediately and is also rather eye-opening. I especially like the women’s voices— the mothers, and the parents, in fact. I especially loved the voice in ‘Cool Wedding.’ And beside being touching, these stories are often so funny.”

—Diane Johnson, author of Le Divorce