A House Is A Body: Stories by Shruti Swamy

(Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book!)

about book: (from Goodreads)

INTRODUCING A DAZZLING NEW LITERARY VOICE

In two-time O. Henry-prize winner Swamy's debut collection of stories, dreams collide with reality, modernity collides with antiquity, myth with true identity, and women grapple with desire, with ego, with motherhood and mortality. In "Earthly Pleasures," Radika, a young painter living alone in San Francisco, begins a secret romance with one of India's biggest celebrities. In "A Simple Composition," a husband's moment of crisis leads to his wife's discovery of a dark, ecstatic joy and the sense of a new beginning. In the title story, an exhausted mother watches, distracted and paralyzed, as a California wildfire approaches her home. With a knife blade's edge and precision, the stories of A House Is a Body travel from India to America and back again to reveal the small moments of beauty, pain, and power that contain the world.

my thoughts:

Short stories are my jam and this book is where they are at. I'm serious. This book was chock full of fantastic short stories that just tugged at your heartstrings and made you think about family, motherhood, identity, life, and desire. It was excellent.

Swamy has compiled a delicious book of short stories that will have you staying up late into the night or reading one short a day to savor them all slowly. I chose the latter and would dip in and out of this book every day to get my fix. Normally, I gobble books up, but this time round, I wanted to take my time. I wanted to sit with each story and just take my time.  And let me just say, reading this book slowly was the way to go. I just loved getting to know these characters and getting lost in each of their stories. It felt like such a treat to have a great short story to dive into each day. I really enjoyed Swamy's writing and storytelling - top notch all the way through.

I would happily recommend A House Is A Body to fans of short stories and anyone looking for a new great read - you won't want to miss out!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book!