BLOG TOUR Review: The Lights of Shantinagar by Nidhi Arora

I received a digital review copy of this book for free from the publisher as part of the blog tour organised by TheWriteReads. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.

Publisher: Unbound
Published: June 2025
Pages: 272

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Synopsis

The Lights of Shantinagar is a warm and lively portrait of family life set in modern India where new philosophies are reshaping old traditions and one woman’s astute observations can change everything.

Aspiring quantum physicist Sumi is newly married and has moved into her husband’s family home. Here she observes that the beguilingly tranquil middle-class town of Shantinagar is not very different from her beloved quantum world: the happenings in one house are cryptically entangled with things next door, objects mysteriously disappear and unexpected interactions reveal surprising truths.

As the line between right and wrong begins to blur, new discoveries force the residents of Shantinagar to reflect on what they truly know about themselves and the ones they love. Meanwhile, Sumi must blend logic with love to make sense of her new circumstances.

My Thoughts…

As much as I love action-packed books, the slower, quieter ones have a special power to capture my heart with their characters and philosophical musings. The Lights of Shantinagar is exactly that kind of book, one in which nothing much happens, but the human element is key and the relationships deeply fascinating.

In the small colony of Shantinagar, aspiring quantum physicist and newlywed Sumi has just moved into her husband’s family home. Soon, she realises that the tranquil lives of the family and its neighbours are deeply entangled in ways none of them fully appreciate and there be much more to these people than initially meets the eye. How much does any of us truly know the people around us, and how much do each of us hide from others? What impact do our actions have on our surroundings? These are all questions that Sumi will have to grapple with if she is to understand her new family and find her place within it.

This is a very quiet book almost entirely based on the characters and their relationships, with frequent references to quantum physics. Although the blurb mentions disappearing objects and unexpected interactions that might lead one to think this is some sort of mystery, it is really not. There are missing objects and a search for a thief, but it is not the focus of the book. The centre of everything is life and the bonds that develop and grow in the daily, often overlooked moments such as sharing dinner or drinking chai. Social expectations and their weight, changing traditions, family bonds, growing up and being true to oneself are all themes that emerged for me when reading this book, and I was fascinated by how the author chose to explore them.

I loved being immersed in the lives of these Indian families and, even though I sometimes didn’t understand absolutely everything, I liked that the author kept some words in the original language and included a glossary at the end to clarify some of these concepts. I did struggle a bit in the beginning to keep all the names straight as there are quite a few characters who are introduced in close succession, but that may be more to do with my own tiredness at the moment than the book itself.

Despite it being a very slow-moving book, I was hooked almost immediately and the reading flowed smoothly. I did find some of the central sections a bit too slow, even for this kind of book, and at some point the quantum physics references lost me completely – again, probably a ‘me problem’ more than an actual issue with the book. Still, the characters are rich and the writing simple yet elegant. I heard somewhere recently that reading a book can be compared to meditating, and I think this book really embodies that feeling.

There’s no meaning in why things happen. ‘Meaning’ is not something that sits hidden in the real world, waiting to be found. It is what we, as observers, choose to superimpose on things.

The Lights of Shantinagar was a really pleasant surprise, and I look forward to seeing what this author writes next. I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a quietly philosophical, character-based book with a non-Western worldview.

Rating: 3.5/5

Huge thanks to the author, Unbound and TheWriteReads for having me on this tour!

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