UK reviews:

‘The Mauritian author explores how legacies of colonialism and empire persist amid acts of cruelty and violence in London ... A meditation on urban inequality, in which the politics of race and class loom large’ jazzed up by ‘tonally awkward moments.’ — The Guardian

‘Mary Grimes, the central character of The Living Days exists, like the novel itself, in a liminal space between the possible and the mythic; between material being and ghostly half-life... This is not a novel which offers any reassurance. We never enter a settled space of familiarity. Even within the internal logic of the novel, the nature of what we are reading becomes unstable... The Living Days is never a predictable novel, indeed it is never less than perplexing and unsettling.’ — The Irish Times

‘This is a novel of great beauty as well as discomfiting disclosure. Ananda Devi’s writing challenges us to reconfigure our own beliefs about right and wrong and to look beyond our own comfortable lives to consider the reality of others.’ – Jo Lateu, New Internationalist

US reviews:

‘Devi is alert to the ways in which social forces, such as racism and ageism, are reshaping London’s already complex post-colonial landscape, and her fluid, poetic language memorably conjures a union of two outcasts.’ — The New Yorker (Briefly Noted Book Reviews)

‘A gorgeously written, profoundly upsetting fairy tale of race, class, power, and desire.’ — Kirkus Reviews

‘Devi’s telling of their relationship is brutal and entirely believable, a gorgeous and haunting depiction of London and the real lives and memories of those unseen within it.’ — Publishers’ Weekly

‘A masterful dissection of racism, ageing, and the queasy nature of desire muddled with power.’ — The Feminist Press, New York

‘The finest Mauritian novelist at work today, Ananda Devi has long been the francophone saint of the outcast, the oppressed, and the derelict. This fluid translation of one of her darkest works gives the reader a glimpse at her profound talent and her unique ability to synthesize political rage with poetic lyricism.’  — Adam Hocker, Albertine

French reviews:

‘A fierce portrait of our times… Sensual and provocative writing, woven of dreams and nightmares, which slowly closes round the reader and holds them in its grasp.’ — Le Monde des Livres

‘Old age always bears a private violence. Ananda Devi describes its inevitable symptoms whilst ever letting us glimpse an illusion of spring.’ — L’Humanité

Further praise for Ananda Devi and Eve Out of Her Ruins

‘...one of Devi and Zuckerman’s greatest triumphs in this book is that each character has their own distinct rhythms, with power and poetry drawn from the cadences of their speech ... narration is extraordinary, shifting between describing solid, often sordid details with vivid precision, and soaring into more abstract passages that echo the ebb and flow of the sea that 'surges, escapes, shatters' on the island’s shore ... Together these voices provide a stunning immersion in Troumaron, an impoverished area of Port Louis, and in the surges of teenage lust ... [a] stunning short novel.’ — The Guardian

‘The power of this haunting novel is its universality; the stark contrast between the pleasures of the rich and the struggles of the poor has been explored previously, but Devi breathes new life into a familiar conflict by offering four interwoven perspectives, with each narrator affected differently and tragically by the impossibility of changing their circumstances. The beauty of Devi’s prose belies the horror of the world she conjures up. This is a visceral portrait of violence rendered honestly and gracefully.’ — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

‘“One day we wake up and the future has disappeared.” So begins adult life in Troumaron, a run-down area of Port-Louis, in Mauritius. But Devi’s young protagonists resist this erasure; boldest among them is Eve, one of the most compelling fictional characters I‘ve ever encountered – she’s up there with Ferrante’s Lila. And fans of Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels will also recognise in Devi’s account of marginalised urban lives a similar commitment to the truth of how the dispossessed struggle. An extraordinary novel, beautifully translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman.’ — Natasha Soobramanien, author of Genie and Paul

‘I was so locked into Eve out of Her Ruins, I went the wrong way down the Piccadilly line for 6 stops.’ — Lara Pawson, author of This Is the Place to Be

UK reviews:

The Radical Book Review, Jo Lateu, New Internationalist, 19 April 2020
The Living Days: Perplexing and unsettling, Declan O’Driscoll, The Irish TImes, 22 February 2020
Who Gets to Write What? Ananda Devi writes on Mauritius and London, the purpose of fiction, and appearing to tread dark territories, Ananda Devi, PEN Transmissions, 11 February 2020

US reviews:

Briefly Noted, The New Yorker, 27 January 2020
Ananda Devi is making sure Mauritius gets its due, Ariel Saramandi, Electric Lit, 4 November 2019
The Living Days, Publishers’ Weekly, November 2019
The Living Days, Kirkus Reviews, 13 September 2019