A House Is a Body: Stories

Written by Shruti Swamy

Narrated by Soneela Nankani

"This collection will change the way all stories—short and long—are told, written, and consumed." —KIESE LAYMON, author of Heavy



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.



"The beauty and timeless grace of these stories will always speak for themselves." —PETER ORNER, author of Maggie Brown & Others

• Language: English
• Publisher: Highbridge Company
• Release date: Aug 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781696600071

[lisapeet · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was terrific. She has a really wonderful touch, blending realism with abstraction, internal and external life. The Indian women (and a couple of men, and one god) in these stories are moving through lives that weren't what they were led to expect, in many ways—fire, loss, abandonment, abuse, disappointment. Yet for all that darkness her characters are lovely and resolute, and this is not a sad book in the least. It's a fabulous debut, and I'm so sorry I missed it for last year's LJ Best Short Stories, because I would have pinned it up at the top. Definitely a favorite for the year—thank you, Lauren!—and I'm looking forward to her upcoming novel, The Archer.

[wevans-3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Precise and insightful, this collection showcases Swamy's mastery of her craft. Her voice effortlessly inhabits each of her characters, creating a vivid sense of inner life and human complexity. A beautiful and very impressive work that I enjoyed more for its exquisite artistry than emotional heft.

[whitewavedarling · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Swamy is undoubtedly a talented writer, and a few of the stories here are wonderfully powerful, but on the whole, this is one of those collections that make me consider avoiding award-winning stories and collections full of stories that have been featured in respected literary journals. It's not that the writing isn't wonderful--it is--but the brand of MFA fiction that seems to prize art, writing, and concept above story and meaning isn't anything I really care to read a full collection of.

There are short story collections full of 'MFA' or literary fiction which I adore, but in this case, it felt like more of the stories prized language and 'literariness' over quality of story. Some of the stories here stood out as being both powerful and memorable--notably, the last two in the collection ("A House is a Body" and "Night Garden") and the more novella-length "Earthly Pleasures", which was the first story in the collection that I can really say I enjoyed, despite the fact that it appeared about halfway through the collection. In these stories, there was a depth of character and concept that gave real life to the stories, vs. having them be quite so formed and overly artful. They felt alive, and they connected to me in a way that none of the other stories managed.

One of the blurbs here reads, 'The perfect book for lovers of short stories', and I'd amend it to say that this may be 'the perfect book for lovers of MFA-driven short stories'--which, admittedly, is somewhat damning praise. I enjoy literary fiction, and I love short stories--the short stories of Nathan Englander, Anthony Doerr, and Jhumpa Lahiri are the very reasons I fell in love with their writing--but short stories still require depth and life, and too often, it felt like these stories were aspiring to be literary more so than to be enjoyable or engaging.

I may very well take a look at any novel Swamy writes in the future if the description strikes me, but I'm afraid I can't really recommend this collection to anyone other than readers of literary collections and MFA students who want more MFA fiction or to see what some of the big lit. journals are really looking for (which, I suppose, this offers a sample of based on the publications listed for these stories).

[ridgewaygirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The stories in this collection often take a small, decisive moment in a woman's life and use it to shed light on who she is. There's a quirky kind of off-beat flavor to these stories, but it's subtle, as are the stories themselves. Even the oddest ones prefer to remain understated. This collection orders the stories from the weakest to the strongest, something I've never seen done before. Or is it that as I got accustomed to how Swamy wrote, my enchantment grew?

So in these stories, an alcoholic artist meets Krishna, a woman with a baby watches a forest fire approach her home, and a young woman remembers her sitar instructor. Each story focusses on a moment of discomfort and is revealing in a way that unwraps itself slowly. I started out being a little disappointed with these stories and finished the book wishing it had contained a few more.

[rachelramirez-523558 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A House is a Body is a collection of short stories encompassing many aspects of the human experience from around the globe. While "Earthly Pleasures" is a clear favorite, each story has a combination of character development and magical realism that make them all enjoyable.

[mykl8s · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Shruti Swamy gives us twelve good stories, most of them great, immersive, new. Like all good fiction, each story slowed me down, made me want to savor its finish, think about it and feel the feelings gave me. Only one left me unmoved and ready to skip on to the next.
"Earthly Pleasures," where the first person narrator tells of her meetings with Krishna, is my favorite. Like the others, it covers much time and space, moods and experiences, and all in simple but intricately crafted sentences. This is a book worth keeping.

[datrappert · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First, let me get my annoyance--not at the author, who deserves nothing but praise--out of my system. The top of the cover of this book contains the following blurb: "This book will not simply be talked about as one of the greatest short story collections of the 2020s; it will change the way all stories--short and long--are told, written, and consumed." - Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy.

What kind of nonsense is this? In the first place, this book, however well written, does nothing that will change how stories are written or--"consumed"? Who the hell consumes a story? How can anyone who loves books even use such as stupid verb as that? I read them, myself. This Kiese Laymon is an idiot of the first degree. Secondly, why would anyone hang such a responsibility on any author? Ms. Swamy writes very well; don't make her into some sort of goddess come to earth to transform literature.

Ok - I feel a little bit better.

This book grows on you as you read it. Perhaps the better stories are toward the end; I'm not completely sure of that. The perspective is Indian and mostly female, so for a male American reader, these are not stories that you can identify closely with or place yourself into the shoes of the protagonist. Instead, we observe the behavior of these characters, their fumblings for love, their casual affairs, their joys and sorrows, and their secrets as portrayed by the author in very clear, well-written prose that, nevertheless, doesn't call a lot of attention to itself. The story is the thing, and these are good ones, especially the last two in the book, which were prize winners. The siege, the longest story in the book, was definitely my least favorite, but it still has its moments. And while the Indian-ness and female point of view are quite consistent, the stories themselves and the characters in them are quite varied. Actually, there are things any reader can identify with--especially their insecurities.

Highly recommended.

[katybee_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Shruti Swamy has written quite a unique collection of stories in 'The House is a Body'. Her writing is poetic but most of the stories do not have a strong plot or even memorable characters. Reading them is like experiencing new internal feelings about the world somehow. I highly recommend looking up the interview that the author did with Buzzfeed writer Arianna Rebolini. I felt I understood her stories more fully after reading this quote from the interview: "So rather than find the ambiguity of my stories alienating, I would like the reader to find them inviting. I want them to feel like there is no separation between my consciousness and theirs, that they are accepted wholly into these stories if they choose to enter them."

[sean191 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Kafka wrote, "I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief."

Kafka could very well have been talking about Swamy's debut. The stories are expertly crafted, but dark and painful to read. I'm not sure how to say, "I read a book...it made me uncomfortable, it was upsetting to consider the deep reflection it gave of society, but you should read it." I guess I just figured it out.

[jphamilton-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Following Chuck Palahniuk’s dark novel, Adjustment Day, with Shruti Swamy’s fine short story collection, A House is a Body, was a fantastic example of shifting your mindset with literature.
She is a fresh new voice (this being her debut collection), though she’s already won two O. Henry Awards, and her work has appeared in The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, Kenyon Review Online, Boston Review, Prairie Schooner, among others.
Reflecting the author’s heritage, these twelve stories are set in both the U.S. and India. In some stories there’s a touch of a fable, with queens and princes, in another Krishna appears (where upon each appearance, his skin seems to shift between blues and browns), and most of the stories are contemporary and touch on the parts of life we’re all so familiar with.
Because of my own life situation, I’m always measuring how writers treat the death of a loved one in their work, and Swamy did a stunning job in “Mourners,” where Mark’s wife, Chariya died. She wrote about the cruelty of grief and how the survivor’s mind becomes so active and unhinged at moments. In several stories she touches on “black feelings” and what modern life is like in this country. A large threatening fire dances around a character’s California home in one story, where the anxiety rings so true, and also shows how she crafts her stories to twist and turn between relief, fear, love, death, and sunshine.
This debut collection has been getting some richly-deserved high praise and deserves any short story lover’s attention.

[banjo123 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book of short stories, an impressive debut for the author, was an Early Reviewer book. The stories take place in India and the US, and explore love, loss, domestic abuse and ambivalent parenting. Some of the stories use magical realism and most of them left me feeling emotionally ambivalent and a little disturbed.

One of my favorites is Earthly Pleasures, in which an artist, who struggles with alcoholism though the story, meets Krishna at a party. In this story, Krishna is both a blue-skinned god, and an international celebrity whose life is chronicled in tabloids. Here is her description of their meeting:

"He was not wearing sunglasses. When he lifted his eyes to me for a moment I felt the wind knocked out; I was a bell and he'd rung me. I've never felt the gaze of another as a physical force. We wondered: was he a god? His brilliant eyes revealed nothing. He was brighter than I expected, blue as a peacock's neck. Wearing a simple suit, white shirt, navy jacked and no tie. His long dark hair was knotted up at his crown."

[kadia-722203 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"A House is a Body" by Shruti Swamy is a collection of beautiful short stories. The stories are located in India or California, usually from the perspective of a woman from India. The care with which the author describes small details creates a rich fabric that pulls me in and draws me back to another reading. Each word seems chosen because it adds to the whole story, and the whole is emotionally moving. I will search for more of Swamy’s writing.

[jnmegan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Shruti Swamy binds together the twelve short stories in her debut collection A House is a Body by providing each with an exploration of missed connections-with others or with self. Winner of the O. Henry prize, Swamy demonstrates in this sampling her facility with language and an ability to evoke a strong emotional response in the reader. She sets her stories in both the U.S. and India, with diverse narrators and points-of-view. Some of the entries are grittily realistic, while others contain elements of dreamlike fantasy. In “Wedding Season,” two women travel to a family event that requires them to hide their true relationship from the other attendees. “The Neighbors” depicts a young mother who longs to reveal spousal abuse to a new acquaintance but cannot manage to bridge the gap between them. A fantasy story that is set in an unknown time and place, “The Siege” also centers around two women. In this tale, a queen tries to comfort a young wife who has been captured by her husband as an entrée to war between two factions. “Earthly Pleasures” includes an amorphous manifestation of the Hindu God Krishna as he appears in the life of an artist. “Didi” takes the male perspective, as a father attempts to reconcile his loss of one child with his reluctant love for another. The strongest story in the collection is the titular “A House is a Body.” A woman whose husband has abandoned her is left to care for her sick daughter just as a California wildfire rages toward their home. A slim volume that is skillfully curated, A House is a Body is a lovely introduction to a talented short-story writer with a unique voice and a gift for storytelling.

Thanks to the author, and Algonquin Books for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

[alliepascal-876024 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Some beautifully written literary short stories. Whatever comes to mind when you read the title, there's most likely a story in this collection that encompasses that idea; being at home (or not) with oneself in one's body, finding home in another person, a body during pregnancy being a literal home for the unborn child, a house representing a body and its inhabitants souls. Love, sex, and motherhood (in one story, fatherhood) are all things that pervade most of these stories.

Most I liked, and there were three in particular that I loved (including the titular story). There was only one I didn't care for much.

[lisbethe-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received a free copy of this book from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program, in exchange for an honest review. It's a small collection of short stories, but each one is strong and emotionally loaded. The kind of collection that compels you (or should) to sit with and digest and savor each story before moving on. Several border on magical realism, as other reviewers have mentioned, and several dreamlike in a textural way. Recommend very highly.

[carolynschroeder · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a wonderful and surprising short story collection from an author I did not know. Some are magical realism and some are almost Carver-like in their quotidian handling of human emotions and interactions. My favorite story was the "Mourners" about a husband and sister-in-law coming together after the death of the wife/sister. How Swamy captures the emotions of humans, from babies to elders, in descriptions of their actions, is so touching and wonderful. This is an overall strong collection and no real duds in the bunch. I did, at times, have a small bit of confusion on some of the more enigmatic stories, but I do like when an author affords her readers a fair bit of intelligence and imagination. I do not need everything spelled out and part of the fun of reading is to exercise imagination and wonder. Swamy allowed me to do that in stores. Beautiful work.