The Home and the World
About this audiobook
Audie-nominated narrator Deepti Gupta shares a classic love story set among the fires of India’s struggle for independence. Bimala is torn between her commitment to her husband, Nikhil, who holds Western beliefs, and the radical Sandip, a leader of the Swadeshi movement under the British Raj. Bimala finds herself asking what freedom truly means for herself and for her country.
Author, poet, and Nobel laureate, Sir Rabindranath Tagore sets the story on a Bengali noble’s estate in 1908. It is both a love story and a novel of political awakening. Bimala’s attempts to resolve the irreconcilable—pressures of home and the world—reflect the conflict in India itself. The tragic outcome foreshadows the unrest that accompanied Partition in 1947.
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About the author
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) was a Bengali polymath who reshaped the art of his culture. His novels, stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays spoke to topics political and personal. His verse, short stories, and novels were acclaimed—or panned—for their lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and unnatural contemplation. His compositions were chosen by two nations as national anthems: India’s “Jana Gana Mana” and Bangladesh’s “Amar Shonar Bangla.” Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 and knighted by the British Crown in 1915, though he later renounced this honor after the 1919 Amritsar massacre.
Fluent in Hindi, Urdu, and English, Deepti Gupta has an international career spread across India, Singapore, Pakistan, and the United States. As a narrator she brings an open and curious perspective to the author's work. Her natural global/international accent makes her a great choice for an author who is writing to appeal to a global readership/listenership. As an actress she has earned praise from the New York Times for her performance in the feature film Walkaway, and also stars in Record/Play (a sci-fi love story) which was an official selection at Sundance 2013. She earned her MFA in acting from the University of Texas at Austin, an MA in theater studies from the National University of Singapore, and BA in English literature from Delhi University. Besides working as an actress and voice talent, she also works as a consultant with corporate firms and businesses to help expand and deepen their diversity and inclusion strategies.
