Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

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Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India
Nine Lives In Search of the Sacred in Modern India.png
Author William Dalrymple
LanguageEnglish
Subject Travel writing/religion
GenreNon-fiction
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date
2009
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (Hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4088-0061-4
OCLC 437298635
Preceded by The Last Mughal  
Followed by Return of a King  

Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India is a 2009 travel book by William Dalrymple.

Contents

Summary

Dalrymple's seventh book is about the lives of nine Indians, a Buddhist monk, a Jain nun, a lady from a middle-class family in Calcutta, a prison warden from Kerala, an illiterate goat herd from Rajasthan, and a devadasi among others, as seen during his Indian travels. The book explores the lives of nine such people, each of whom represent a different religious path in nine chapters.

For the launch of the book in India some of the characters in the book performed for the audience, [1] with one of character's Hari Das from Kerala leading the Theyyam troupe and Paban Das Baul from Bengal leading the Baul singers. [1]

Critical response

The book was published by Bloomsbury to great acclaim, The Observer remarking that it "ranks with the very finest travel writing". [2] On publication it went to the number one slot on the Indian non-fiction section best seller list. [3] Hirsh Sawhney, writing in The Guardian , admires the book's "awareness of the world's innate cosmopolitanism" and "remarkably diverse array of characters". He calls Nine Lives a "compelling and poignant" work, but believes that Nine Lives does not challenge the partitioning of the world into "anachronistic, seemingly irreconcilable compartments" like the author's other works. [4] Brian Schofield in The Sunday Times acknowledges the power and humanity of Dalrymple's portraits, calling them the work of "a towering talent" but also remarks on its narrow focus. [5] In contrast, Pico Iyer, in TIME Magazine, praises the "powerful restraint and clarity" the book brings to "precisely the two subjects—India and faith—that cause most observers to fly off into cosmic vagueness or spleen. The result is a deeply respectful and sympathetic portrait." [6] The distinguished Sanskritist Wendy Doniger also raved about the book in a cover story for the Times Literary Supplement : "Dalrymple vividly evokes the lives of these men and women, with the sharp eye and good writing that we have come to expect of his extraordinary travel books about India.. A glorious mixture of journalism, anthropology, history, and history of religions, written in prose worthy of a good novel, not since Kipling has anyone evoked village India so movingly. Dalrymple can conjure up a lush or parched landscape with a single sentence." [7]

The book was long listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2010. [8] [9] It has received the 2010 Asia House Award for Asian Literature.

References

  1. 1 2 "Spiritual journey". The Telegraph, India. 2009-11-01. Archived from the original on September 17, 2012. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
  2. Nicoll, Ruaridh (2009-10-04). "Nine Lives by William Dalrymple". London: Guardian. Retrieved 2009-10-28.
  3. "William's new book tops bestseller list". Hindustan Times. 2009-10-22. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved 2009-10-28.
  4. Sawhney, Hirsh (2009-10-24). "A spiritual journey misses a few milestones". London: Guardian. Retrieved 2009-10-30.
  5. "Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India by William Dalrymple". London: Timesonline. 2009-10-18. Retrieved 2009-10-30.[ dead link ]
  6. Iyer, Pico (2009-11-09). "William Dalrymple's Nine Lives: Into the Mystic". Time. Archived from the original on November 5, 2009. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
  7. Doniger, Wendy (2010-01-06). "Indias sacred extremes". The Times. London. Archived from the original on June 15, 2011. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
  8. "The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2010 Longlist". Samuel Johnson Prize. Archived from the original on 2012-02-23. Retrieved 2010-11-27.
  9. Pauli, Michelle (2010-04-22). "Samuel Johnson prize longlist spans the globe". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2010-05-20.