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NAME OF THE BOOK: All Those Who Wander
AUTHOR OF THE BOOK: Kiran Manral
GENRE: Science fiction / Time travel
BLURB
What if the past, present and future exist at once? What if you could rewrite your past? What if you could go back and change it around? What if you could protect the child you were from the trauma you know she will have to live through? What if you were living infinite versions of the same life simultaneously? This is the story of Ana, who is at a different age each time we meet her. But who is Ana—is she really who she says she is? A tangled tale of looped time and non-sequential lives, of guilt and repercussions, ‘All Those Who Wander’ turns the classic time-travel genre into a spine-tingling gorgeousness of who, what, when, where. Wouldn’t you take that one chance to heal your inner child?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kiran Manral has published multiple books across genres in fiction and nonfiction. She has been awarded the International Women’s Day Award 2018 by the Indian Council for UN Relations supported by the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare, Government of India, for excellence in the field of writing. She was listed as one of the Womennovator 1000 Women of Asia 2021. In 2022, she was named amongst the 75 Iconic Indian women in STEAM by Red Dot Foundation and Beyond Black, in collaboration with the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor, Government of India, and British High Commission, New Delhi. She lives in Mumbai with her family and can be reached on twitter @KiranManral.
ABOUT THE BOOK
One of the wonderful things about reading is finding that next great author that you love. You read one of their books and instantly spend next few days hunting down their back catalogue. Experience has taught me not to read too many of these in a row as you start to see parallels in the books. But some times you come across an author who refuses to pigeonholed and Kiran Manral is one such author who has variety of books in her kitty.
Personally I am not one look back on my life, preferring to live and enjoy what I have in the present, but when I do it, it is about my time in school and university, that person I could have treated better or would have made extra effort to be a better at things. But what if you would have traumatic childhood and that had affected and changed your life drastically then, I am sure you would like to turn around the time for good.
All those who wander is the story about Ana who is also Nayna had a traumatic and painful childhood, she is time travelling by looking at her reflection in a mirror. Ana could travel through time and multiverses, pulling her one version from one universe and placing in another, hoping for a better world not realizing that this could entangle her life. The narrative goes back and forth between the past and the future leaving reader perplexed however this will make the reader more and more curious too.
There is a paragraph in a book which make things clear as to what's happening with Nayna or should I say Ana. The paragraph goes like this:
"Few of us have the ability to shift ourselves. Your time calls them time travelers. Some books and movies have already caught on to these, but your time can't explain how it is done. Neither can we. All we know is that a few humans can shift between dimensions. You are born with it, no one can teach you how to do it, no one can control it for you. You can move between times."
Though the story demands to be boxed in science fiction genre but has scores of emotions in it, be it love, thriller, fear or faith.
MY TAKE ON THE BOOK
This book gave me goosebumps. Never tried this genre but now I can happily say that, I would love to read more of this. Science fiction with time travel as a theme is not an easy read or write for that matter, as it takes time to connect, but ones you get the hang of it then there is no looking back. Every character is so well defined that despite shifting from one time to another didn't seems difficult to understand, as there was a smooth transition.
I would say, everyone should try reading this genre and if you are doing it for the first time than start with this book for sure.
BOOK DETAILS
Book format: Paperback/ Kindle edition
Price: INR 282/INR 235.20
Pages: 280
Publisher: Amaryllis
Availability: Amazon
This Book is part of Blogchatter's #Book Review Program #TBR Challenge #BookChatter