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The Way Things Were Hardcover – 4 December 2014

by Aatish Taseer (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 128 ratings
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The Way Things Were
The Way Things Were
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When Skanda's father Toby dies, estranged from Skanda's mother and from the India he once loved, it falls to Skanda to return his body to his birthplace. This is a journey that takes him halfway around the world and deep into the story of three generations of his family, whose factures, frailties and toxic legacies he has always sought to elude. Both an intimate portrait of a marriage and its aftershocks and a panoramic vision of India in transition, The Way Things Were is a magisterial novel about the pressures of history upon the present moment. Set at flashpoints in 1975, 1984, 1992 and in modern Delhi, it has the epic reach and thrilling ambition and the potential to become a classic of its time. Note: The Cover Image is not final Book image as it is just Author's Image.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    563 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Picador India
  4. Publication date
    4 December 2014
  5. Dimensions
    23.6 x 4.8 x 16.6 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    9382616330
  7. ISBN-13
    978-9382616337
  8. See all details
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Product description

About the Author

Aatish Taseer is the author of Stranger to History, a Son's Journey through Islamic Lands (2009) and a highly acclaimed translation Manto: Selected Stories (2008). His novel, The Temple-Goers (2010) was shortlisted for the 2010 Costa First Novel Award. His second novel, Noon was also critically acclaimed. His works have been translated into over ten languages. He lives between Delhi and London.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador India; First Edition (4 December 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 563 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9382616330
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9382616337
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 760 g
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 23.6 x 4.8 x 16.6 cm
  • Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ India
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 128 ratings

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Aatish Taseer

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Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
128 global ratings
Kaala and itihasa
4 Stars
Kaala and itihasa
Aatish Taseer takes us on a epic journey through time. He combines certain key historical events that have shaped our nation with the lives of his characters. The other background is Sanskrit, the language that we hold dear as part of our heritage. The title itself is a translation of itihasa: history, or literally, the way things were... (My profile > open blog link > Labels > The Way Things Were)
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Top reviews from India

Natasha Samani
5.0 out of 5 stars Twitter recommendation that I loved
Reviewed in India on 21 May 2019
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Longish read, but the best book on contemporary India that I have read this year. Aatish Taseer has delightful style which readers of Indian writing in English will immediately recognize.
2 people found this helpful
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Ananth
4.0 out of 5 stars A must read
Reviewed in India on 15 January 2020
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The story alternates between two time periods. The current and the 1970-80, emergency periods. Vividly brings out the atrocities committed during the emergency , anti sikh riots and the mis information and misuse of Hindu religion in the current period to consolidate authoritarian rule. The events are sensitively told. Author's scholarly knowledge of Sanskrit is astonishing . Contrasts with the lack of knowledge of our culture and Sanskrit of the Hindutva brigade.The book at times can be a little dragging. Needs patience to go through. A must read.
One person found this helpful
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R J Ghatey
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding!
Reviewed in India on 7 April 2017
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A superb novel. Sharply sketched characters, a yoyo narrative which doesn't hamper the story telling, a deep psychological characterisation and interesting historical events in the background, presented in a non judgemental fashion. Way beyond my expectations! A must read for all thinking Indians.
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alokedimri
5.0 out of 5 stars Of Sanskrit, identity and 70s Lutyens
Reviewed in India on 23 July 2018
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Excellent read. Aatish surprised me with this novel.
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Swarup Kumar Kar
4.0 out of 5 stars Reccomended for Indian readers
Reviewed in India on 25 February 2015
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Nicely written, with very well fleshed out characters. It seems the author is inspired by inception style story within a story within a story from Sankrit epics. But that approach doesnt do justice to the innermost story i.e. the one about Lord Shiva and Uma. Also, the stress on lingustics may put off readers who are not familiar with Sankritic languages. But i would strongly reccomend this book for indian readers, epecially the ones born after the Emergency. This book gives a nice glimpe of life and styles of Lutyens Delhi during the pre liberalization period.
5 people found this helpful
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Anshul
3.0 out of 5 stars A vivid portrait of love, marriage
Reviewed in India on 19 January 2016
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A story transcending the contemporaric notion of time. A story of past to discover and understand who you are while going through the present, facing its dystopic ugliness. A story of a family of elites, of mixed race royals to the political luminaries. A semantic journey through Sanskrit, Greek and Latin, idiosyncratically connected to the 1984 and 1992 riots.
A vivid portrait of love, marriage, parenting and divorce with the chronicles of Independent India running in parallel.
Aatish Taseer has done a commendable job in woving up this complex tale which runs through three generations of a family. Though the 'difficult to understand' prose may prove to be a setback, it's an arresting read nevertheless.
2 people found this helpful
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GB
1.0 out of 5 stars Very bad quality of hardcover edition
Reviewed in India on 11 May 2021
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Hardcover was torn. Pages were yellow. Dents on cover. Returned it.
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Sanghita Das
2.0 out of 5 stars Torn book. Damaged to the core.
Reviewed in India on 15 August 2020
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The book is severely damged despite filing for a return. I had already returned the previous damged copy yet the one that I received today is more damaged than the previous one.
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Sanghita Das
2.0 out of 5 stars Torn book. Damaged to the core.
Reviewed in India on 15 August 2020
The book is severely damged despite filing for a return. I had already returned the previous damged copy yet the one that I received today is more damaged than the previous one.
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Top reviews from other countries

L. Young
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, Brilliant and Wise
Reviewed in the United States on 29 November 2015
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Skanda, as the only son of the family is asked to take his father Toby's body from Switzerland to India, his ancestral homeland to scatter his ashes on the Tamasa River. Toby is a brilliant Sanskrit scholar and his love of this ancient language has been passed to Skanda also a Sanskrit scholar. Through the memories of Skanda ,the lives of Toby and Skanda's mother Uma are vividly brought to life and intertwined with the traumatically violent and sectarian events of post-colonial India. Their mileu is of upper class India, the so-called drawing-room elite who are drawn to the West as they forget their ancient culture symbolized by the beauty of the Sanskrit language. As Toby and Uma separate so too India through the novel's depiction of the Emergency, the massacre at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the killing of Sikh's in reprisal and the destruction of the Bobri Mosque in Ayodhya. Toby had so hoped a love for ancient Indian culture could unite the disparate factions but disillusioned by the events at Ayodhya he leaves India forever for the West, 'when they're ready -when they want their culture back-it'll be waiting for them in the West, like so much else'. Beautifully written, emotionally powerful and historically astute this is the finest novel I have read this year. Taseer is an author to watch.
6 people found this helpful
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Sameer Bhai
5.0 out of 5 stars a remarkable achievement
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 March 2015
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This is a remarkably ambitious piece of literature. It tells two epic tales--one a Sanskrit courtly epic, the other India's political reconfiguration from the Emergency to Ayodhya--and interrelates them in a sophisticated parallel narrative structure. An emblematic personal drama plays out against the landscape of the modern political epic while the Sanskrit courtly epic proceeds on a parallel track, imbuing the former with another level of meaning. And all of this unfolds in a personal reflection on language and identity--a fascination with language's ability to provide us with the most intimate ways in which we understand the world and our place in it. Sanskrit looms large here, and in a relatively new guise: as a cultural inheritance which can root Indian (Nepali, etc.) selves in an illustrious, multi-faceted and extremely learned past. But because that shared language past is both cosmopolitan (Sanskrit was the translocal language of learning for South and Southeast Asia) and inherently interconnected (Sanskrit and the rest of the Indo-European languages all deriving from a common source), it makes for a very sophisticated, even global kind of identity.

This is not to say that the book, like any other, is without flaws. It has been criticized for the unnatural eloquence of some of its characters and that sort of thing. It also gives the reader a lot of credit--perhaps too much, judging by some of the reviews here--for his/her ability to rise to its challenges. I personally like being taught something by the books I read--e.g., about Indian political history, or Sanskrit intellectual history--so I was happy to put in some extra work to understand what The Way Things Were has to offer. I don't really understand people who give this book a poor rating because they aren't willing to make the effort demanded by a serious work of literature. (If you haven't yet read the Sanskrit court epic TWTW references, you should check it out in this beautiful translation:  The Birth of Kumara (Clay Sanskrit Library) . It will help you appreciate the parallel Sanskrit narrative of TWTW.) Much more could be said, but all that really matters is that this book deserves to be read. Give it a go, and head to the web to fill in any relevant gaps in your knowledge along the way. You'll be glad you did. Taseer is approaching the level of a Proust here, and should be celebrated for it.
3 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating window into modern India
Reviewed in the United States on 5 September 2015
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A very interesting story of two generations of modern-day Indian families. The author delves into the very complicated mix of ancient history and culture, the mutli racial and religious results of centuries of invasion and colonization, and independence and partition. All these factors affect how individuals find their places in modern Indian society. A working knowledge of Indian history and culture would add to a readers appreciation of this very well-written book.
One person found this helpful
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P. Dhinsa
4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable but hard work
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 November 2015
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I enjoyed reading this story about Skanda, who is on a journey to take his dead father's body back to India. I've knocked off a star because I do think that it is just too much, I wanted to skim over parts. I am Indian by birth and know a lot about Indian politics and understand most of the Indian words used within the book, but for a non-Indian I do think the vocabulary is too much. To understand everything, but still keep the flow of the story going at the same time was quite hard at points.
If you have time to spare and are prepared to take on a novel that requires some work to read, then don't hesitate to read this book, especially if you enjoy books set in India.
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GigiH20
5.0 out of 5 stars I am not a semi professional book reviewer. I think I have fallen upon a gem.
Reviewed in the United States on 18 July 2015
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I should not be writing this it's to early on in the book but I'm totally fascinated.. I'm a self proclaimed Indophile, no doubt I'm missing some of todays jargon as used by the metro's of Mumbai and Delhi but I love the writing. Some of the paragraphs leave me breathless. I wish I had purchased in hard copy some books are better to be able to mark and or flip back to kindles have their limitations. Yes, you are right I'm not Indian, I will never understand, but out of 1 billion + you can hardly find 20 people that agree on anything, except maybe the current PM.

Note: Please read Fiction Fan for a complete and wonderful review. I know I'm going to follow this person from now on.
3 people found this helpful
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