Description

Pushing intimacy to its limits in prose of unearthly beauty, Vauhini Vara explores the nature of being a child, parent, friend, sibling, neighbour or lover, and the relationships between self and others. A young girl reads the encyclopedia to her elderly neighbour, who is descending into dementia. A pair of teenagers seek intimacy as phone-sex operators. A competitive sibling tries to rise above the drunken mess of her own life to become a loving aunt. One sister consumes the ashes of another. And, in the title story, an experimental artist takes on his most ambitious project yet: constructing a life-size ark according to the Bible’s specifications.

In a world defined by estrangement, where is communion to be found? The characters in This Is Salvaged, unmoored in turbulence, are searching fervently for meaning, through one another.

Publisher Review

A dazzling collection full of spellbinding prose...Through unrestrained characters and fresh scenarios, Vara masterfully makes anew what it feels like to be alive -- Jonathan Escoffery * New York Times Book Review * In these tales, Vara has captured the fantasies, griefs and longings of life. From keen-eyed girlhood to delusional middle-age, the characters reach for more than is possible, falter, then reach for more. This Is Salvaged is a book for readers who need clarity and hope - that is to say: everybody. -- Andrew Sean Greer, author of LESS It takes tremendous courage and wit to look with wonder at the darkest, most shameful places in the human heart and make them hilarious, tender and deeply moving; Vauhini Vara, with her grand-scale compassion and moral complexity in This is Salvaged, can do this magic with astonishing ease. -- Lauren Groff, author of MATRIX The stories in Vauhini Vara's This Is Salvaged are brilliant, entirely human, abidingly strange. She is one of our most inventive writers of fiction, as well as visionary, with a gift for writing about grief both extraordinary and ordinary. This Is Salvaged is unforgettable. -- Elizabeth McCracken, author of THE HERO OF THIS BOOK I finished This is Salvaged and immediately wanted to re-read it. What a ride. Vauhini Vara's writing is immersive, yielding stories that are clever and surprising, heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny. A brilliant, deeply satisfying collection. -- Deesha Philyaw, author of THE SECRET LIVES OF CHURCH LADIES These dazzling stories take a kaleidoscopic and ferociously tender look at loss and what people hold onto or discover in the wake of it...Vara has written a wholly original, insightful and powerful collection. -- Danielle Evans, author of THE OFFICE OF HISTORICAL CORRECTIONS A poignant collection of stories that glimpse the salvation of human connection in the midst of modern alienation. * Kirkus Reviews * Vara invigorates with emotional insights, whimsy, and a precision with language. It's a remarkable achievement * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *