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Two Lives
by Vikram Seth
Description:
Widely acclaimed as one of the world’s greatest living writers, Vikram Seth author of the international bestseller A Suitable Boy tells the heartrending true story of a friendship, a marriage, and a century. Weaving together the strands of two extraordinary lives Shanti Behari Seth, an immigrant from India who came to Berlin to study in the 1930s, and Helga Gerda Caro, the young German Jewish woman he befriended and later married Two Lives is both a history of a violent era seen through the eyes of two survivors and an intimate, unforgettable portrait of a complex, abiding love
About The Author
Vikram Seth CBE (born 20 June 1952) is an Indian novelist and poet. He has written several novels and poetry books. He has received several awards including Padma Shri, Sahitya Akademi Award, Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, WH Smith Literary Award and Crossword Book Award. Seth’s collections of poetry such as Mappings and Beastly Tales are notable contributions to the Indian English language poetry canon.Vikram Seth has published six books of poetry and three novels. In 1980, he wrote poem of Mappings, his first poem. The publication of A Suitable Boy, a 1,349-page novel, propelled Seth into the public limelight and won the WH Smith Literary Award in 1993. An Equal Music, published in 1999, deals with the troubled love life of a violinist. He was awarded the commander of the order 3 of the British Empire CBE on February 2001. Vikram Seth’s work Two Lives published in 2005 is a memoir of the marriage of his great uncle and aunt.
In addition to The Golden Gate, Seth has written other works of poetry including Mappings (1980), The Humble Administrator’s Garden (1985), All You Who Sleep Tonight (1990) and Three Chinese Poets (1992). His children’s book, Beastly Tales from Here and There ‘(1992) consists of ten stories about animals. He has also authored a travel book, From Heaven Lake: Travels through Sinkiang and Tibet (1983), an account of a journey through Tibet, China and Nepal. Vikram Seth was also commissioned by the English National Opera to write a libretto based on the Greek legend of Arion and the Dolphin. The opera was performed for the first time in June 1994.
Skryf Review
The Two Lives are those of the author’s great uncle Shanti Behari Seth, and of his great aunt, Hennerle Gerda Caro., who lived in Hendon when he knew them, but had met in Berlin before the Second World War. She was a Jewish native of Berlin. He was an Indian student of dentistry with connections in Britain. Later sections deal variously with her post-war correspondence with old friends – some revealed to be not the friends she had hoped – and later dealings with the complex Indian family relationships. It is the wonderful story of several Indian families, often humorous and always beautifully written, that covers the panorama of Indian history from Partition to the present.
Skryf Review
The Two Lives are those of the author’s great uncle Shanti Behari Seth, and of his great aunt, Hennerle Gerda Caro.who lived in Hendon when he knew them, but had met in Berlin before the Second World War. She was a Jewish native of Berlin. He was an Indian student of dentistry with connections in Britain. Later sections deal variously with her post-war correspondence with old friends – some revealed to be not the friends she had hoped – and later dealings with the complex Indian family relationships. It is the wonderful story of several Indian families, often humorous and always beautifully written, that covers the panorama of Indian history from Partition to the present.