Readers’ comments on Revisiting the Mines, published by Paper Lantern Books in 2024
“Amit’s writing comes from a space within that has an immense capacity to capture beauty in multiples. Descriptions of trees collide with yearning for friends, lives and cities past with today, and yet each stands out with a strange evocative intensity. It’s a beautiful read, the one you’ll carry outdoors on a warm but breezy summer day.”
(~Sohini Chattopadhyay, Assistant Professor of History, Union College, NY)
“[The] collection is a love letter to the transportive power of memory, incandescent with hard-earned truths and undeniable prose.”
(~ Mehr Singh, food and culture journalist, New York City)
“At a time where everything is quick and easy, Revisiting the Mines is a slow and deliberate look at the world and the rich tapestry of life. The book’s breadth is vast, encompassing engaging anecdotes from Shah’s long career in publishing, the interplay of his family’s and the country’s history, as well as rich observations from his daily walks. It’s a book I enjoyed dipping into at the end of each day, it infused in me a certain calmness.”
(~Veena Venugopal, author, India)
“Revisiting The Mines opens with and then returns to walks around Fresh Pond, weaving Amit’s immediate experience there with clear facts about the history of the place. On both of these levels the pond is very familiar to me and yet, as I read, I felt the reality of its deep past, long before I was born, as a very clear present. I was there hundreds of years ago with members of the Algonquian tribe, and I was there right now on this gray winter day, both at the same time. Such magical weaving of past and present keeps recurring throughout the book in fascinating mosaics made up from seemingly unrelated bits of Amit’s life. This process echoes my own experience as I get older. Tiny moments from the middle of the last century blossom into my present experience with great force and give me a feeling of opening to new dimensions of time. As I read the book and even after finishing it, Amit companions me in this mysterious quality of expanding time. His process flows in with mine, making the whole field of memory richer and more substantial.”
(~ Zoe Stewart, Arlington, MA)
“Beginning 2025 with this engrossing book of essays and photographs by Amit Shah. The writing is crystalline and the entire experience of going through the book is meditatively cinematic.”
(~ Bhaswati Ghosh, author and poet, Ontario, Canada)
“Amit Shah’s latest collection of essays, Revisiting the Mines. I highly recommend this book. Much like a sculptor adding material to an armature, Amit builds upon remembrance of his past and its relation to his present, presence. “
(~ Kevin Duffy, Sculptor and artist, Arlington, MA)
“I just finished reading your book. It’s really wonderful. I read it in just two sittings as I found it so compelling. Your writing is beautiful. . ..Additionally, I’m struck by the complexity of this book’s approach. You present many disparate memories and reflections that somehow, over the course of the book, form a profoundly true representation of the nature of memory and self-narrative. The book prompted me to think about my own life and the fact that memories are like a collage or patchwork of vignettes or something similar, rather than any kind of smooth and continuous narrative.
I really admire and appreciate the ambitiousness of what is at the same time a humbly honest work. BRAVO!!!”
(~ Elizabeth Merrick, Somerville, MA)
“Memoirs, and diaries are often relegated to the annals of literary history unless they are by the famous or notorious. And yet, both are in my eyes among the most honest and courageous literary modes. And so it is with this slim book that contains glimpses from the author’s past, his learnings— personal narrative coinciding with grand world events now and again. Of the much there is to absorb in this book that is quite laden with images and memories, perhaps the biggest one is the courage to look at oneself, one’s own life, use one’s voice and say, this is me, I was here and my life mattered. Readers and writers alike can afford to take a page out of it
( ~ Aayati Sengupta, Bengaluru, India
“I read this collection of short stories and was filled with curiosity, thought and anticipation to read the next one. Wonderful way to spend time and grateful for Amit’s talent and ability to bring alive his past!
Highly recommend. “
(~Paul Keating, Boston, MA)
Praise for Instincts of Beauty, published by Woolf Press, 2021
“In his mosaic of a memoir, Amit Shah offers a
tesserae of an extraordinary life.
The gemstones dazzle, set out as they are with
darker pieces from darker places. Seen as a whole,
Shah creates an unforgettable picture.”
~ Carol Jago, past president of the National
Council of Teachers of English, currently
serves on the International Literacy
Association’s board of directors
“At first glance, it seems a simple collection of
essays – many of which have been published in
various literary journals. But then, you start
reading and discover a mini-memoir whose
chapters are separate and interconnected and
which gracefully weave together family history,
stories of migration and immigration, and poetic
reflections on life – and simultaneously invites
you, the reader, to excavate your own memories.”
~Sandhya Nankani, Founder-Publisher,
Literary Safari
“Amit writes from his heart for your heart. No
doubt the material has to flow through your
thinking brain, but that’s not where it stops. It
finds your heart. I particularly liked the longer
India-related stories because I could relate to
them directly.
‘Crossing Chowringhee’ is not even a story. It’s
just a set of mini anecdotes. But they hang together
like shers in a ghazal, and even has a makta at the
end, as required in a ghazal.
Do read. You will love it.”
~Subodh Mathur, Bethesda, MD
“I read your book in one sitting and LOVED
it. As they say, I couldn’t put it down. I think I
liked it so much because, in some way, it wasn’t
at all what I expected. I don’t know what I was
expecting, actually, but maybe the title led me to
envision musings on nature, something like that. I
didn’t know it would be all about you, and told in
such a moving way… really, really good.”
~Tom Barber, former publisher, North
Carolina
“Late last week I finally got the chance to read
your book, and I am still very moved by it… The
way you write about your life, certain important
facts/stories/memories repeat and weave a fabric
of you, the subject of all the experience, in the
present. I can feel the power of the past, even
the time before you were born, present in your
life today. And it flows into my life because you
write so well, so clearly and with such delicacy of
feeling.”
~Zoe Stewart, Arlington, MA
“I love the endings of ‘The Homecoming’ and
‘Interrogations of Memory.’ Two parts of the whole
experience. The tablecloth pull is brilliant.”
~Pamela Post-Ferrante, MFA Writing,
Cambridge, MA
“Personal. Powerful. Poignant. Amit Shah’s
Instincts of Beauty is a slim volume of essays
covering a wide range of issues and emotions.
Amit shares deeply personal experiences to convey
universal truths. His openness creates an intimacy
with the reader that is profoundly moving.”
~Paula Maylahn, Northvale, NJ
“Through this short book, the author sums
up his experiences so strongly and profoundly
that within 75 pages we feel we have known
the author as someone really close to us…. The
author’s storytelling is flawless and exquisite. His
narration is excellent and made me forget I was
reading nonfiction.”
~Anandarupa Chakrabarti, blogger @
bookalicious.sapien, India