House of Caravans - by Shilpi Suneja

About the Book

"Moving back and forth from the tumultuous years surrounding Partition to the era of renewed global sectarianism following 9/11, this extraordinary historical novel portrays a family and nations divided by the living legacy of colonialism"--

Book Synopsis

A sweeping and richly evocative debut novel of a family bound by memory and legacy, love and loss, and a homeland forever changed.

Lahore, British India. 1943. As resentment of colonial rule grows, so do acts of rebellion. Seduced by idealistic visions, at seventeen Chhote Nanu is imprisoned for planting a bomb on behalf of the resistance, leaving his brother Barre to fight for his freedom. But Chhote is consumed not by thoughts of family and liberation, but by the beautiful half-English woman he met before his arrest. Who was she really, and who was the child with her?

Kanpur, India. 2002. Karan Khati is studying in the States when his younger sister, Ila, informs him that their grandfather Barre Nanu has died, and asks that he return home. When he arrives, he finds their estranged mother at odds with their embittered granduncle, Chhote. As hard truths and harmful legacies of familial and religious prejudice resurface, an already-fractured family must learn to heal after being driven apart by years of contentious secrets and unresolved heartache.

Spanning generations, Shilpi Suneja's House of Caravans is a masterfully told and moving portrayal of a family and a nation divided by the lasting consequences of colonialism.

Review Quotes

Praise for House of Caravans
"A moving portrait of a family and a nation divided."--Oprah Daily, "Most Anticipated Books of 2025"
"Reminiscent of Zadie Smith's White Teeth... [a] moving evocation of life before, during, and after Partition and the past's immeasurable impact on the present."--Kirkus Reviews
"Suneja weaves a tale that spans generations, centering on the trauma of the Partition and its rippling effects on a family trying to find its way back to one another. This is a promising debut."--Publishers Weekly
"Intense and evocative, this powerful debut historical saga recounts India's partition throughout time to explore the profound intergenerational impacts of the event in nuanced and beautiful storytelling."--Karla Strand, Ms. Magazine
"[House of Caravans] reminds us again and again that belonging has never been reducible to a simple choosing of sides."--Gus O'Connor, Full Stop
"Suneja's novel is full of quiet, imperfect characters making hard choices in dire straits, who are aware of themselves as bigger than, and yet completely mired in, their circumstances. The power of this novel as a social novel--as a work of realism that shows the fate of the individual caught up in history--is that it shows how cruelly history treats individuals in the first place. Suneja's representation of history and its effects effectively captures this miserable process. As a portrait of a family whose members have been caught up and then ground down by history, House of Caravans is a triumph of realism."--Diane Josefowicz, West Trade Review
"House of Caravans is an astonishing debut-the work of a master writer. Through finely wrought details and clever plotting, Shilpi Suneja illustrates how the reverberations of the 1947 Partition are felt across multiple generations. With her deft writing and her penetrating imagination, Suneja gifts us with a beautiful testament to the power of storytelling."--Shawna Yang Ryan, Literary Hub
"Told with sumptuous language and epic intensity, House of Caravans is a captivating, harrowing historical saga."--Foreword Review
"From intimate love stories to terrorist plots to the political intrigues of 1940s British India, Shilpi Suneja's absorbing novel introduces a nuanced, sophisticated, and authentic voice that illustrates the human cost of colonialism and resilience of true love. Simultaneously set in 2002 and in the harrowing years before the violent creation of Muslim Pakistan and Hindu-majority India, House of Caravans recounts the story of four generations of a family whose members refuse to be defined by the limitations of their times, who dare to love and befriend across religious and class divides. This is a gorgeous and enjoyable tale, eschewing binary and easy definitions of identity, home, and family."--Rishi Reddi, author of Passage West: A Novel
"House of Caravans is an astonishing debut--the work of a master writer. Through finely wrought details and clever plotting, Shilpi Suneja illustrates how the reverberations of the 1947 Partition are felt across multiple generations. With her deft writing and her penetrating imagination, Suneja gifts us with a beautiful testament to the power of storytelling."--Shawna Yang Ryan, author of Green Island: A Novel
"A tale of kinship, violence, separation, and reunion, House of Caravans is rich and evocative, filled with unforgettable details of India at the end of colonial rule. The Partition is an enormous subject, and this is marvelous storytelling."--Allegra Goodman, author of Sam: A Novel
"Tolstoyan in its scope, House of Caravans is a marvel of a novel. It copes with some major issues of our time, such as the mingling of races, colonization, rebellion, historical violence, migrations, and also love and remembrance. Shilpi Suneja writes with patience, subtlety, and intelligence. She is a genuine artist."--Ha Jin, author of Waiting: A Novel
"Subverting expectations and ironies, House of Caravans tells a riveting story (in beautiful prose!) and resounds with Shilpi Suneja's exceptional understanding of the human psyche. Grappling with themes of social injustice, immigrant life in the U.S., and the complicated bonds within extended families, Shilpi Suneja's novel reveals a sincere, informed engagement with matters of political history and of human dignity."--Daphne Kalotay, author of Blue Hours: A Novel
"These are characters I won't forget, they burn with vivacity, and the scenes do too. I am happy to be among them. . . . This is a marvelous story and Shilpi Suneja's voice livens it up."--Fanny Howe, author of Love and I: Poems
"Straddling two critical time periods of great violence and change on a global scale, Suneja's novel weaves an intimate tale of two brothers--both brimming with regret, prejudice, sweetness and sorrow--as deftly as a spinner with golden thread. I can't even begin to fully convey the complexities of this book--its richness, its tenderness, its intelligence--all in a story that pulls you into Suneja's dreamy imagination. This is a novel that will make you marvel, think, and, finally, break your heart."--Michelle Hoover, author of Bottomland: A Novel

About the Author

Shilpi Suneja is the author of House of Caravans. Born in India, her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and published in Guernica, McSweeney's, Cognoscenti, and the Michigan Quarterly Review. Her writing has been supported by a National Endowment for the Arts literature fellowship, a Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowship, a Grub Street Novel Incubator Scholarship, and she was the Desai fellow at the Jack Jones Literary Arts Retreat. She holds an MA in English from New York University and an MFA in creative writing from Boston University, where she was awarded the Saul Bellow Prize. She lives in Cambridge, MA.