New in Paperback: The Toss of A Lemon by Padma Viswanathan

We loved The Toss of A Lemon when it first arrived in hardcover last year. In fact, we loved it so much, it was selected as one of January Magazine’s top books of 2008. Here’s what we said about it at the time:

Padma Viswasathan’s debut novel pads in on little cat feet and rips you along. You don’t realize you’re on an epic journey in the midst of a generational saga until you’re well along and it’s far, far too late to turn back. Not that you’d want to. Not that you even could. Inspired by the author’s own family history, we join Sivakami in a village in India in 1892, the year of her marriage to the healer, Hanumarathnam. She is ten. What astonishes here is Viswasathan’s virtuosity. In The Toss of A Lemon, we join India at a time of great social and political upheaval. Nevertheless, we experience this only at a distance. The way, in fact, Sivakami might experience it. Our concerns are more immediate, more domestic, though never more mundane. The marriage of a daughter, a granddaughter. The obedience of a son-in-law. The disturbingly progressive thoughts of a son. These concern Sivakami exclusively and, with her as our proxy, they are all that concern us, as well.

With the paperback released this month, Mariner makes the book even better. How? Well, now it’s easier to take along!

January Magazine’s original review is here.