Everything The Light Touches by Janice Pariat

Everything the Light Touches introduces a diverse cast of travelers: Shai, a young Indian woman who embarks on a journey to India's northeast and discovers a new way of life through her interactions with indigenous communities. Evelyn, an Edwardian student at Cambridge who, inspired by Goethe's botanical writings, sets out to find the sacred forests of the Lower Himalayas. Linnaeus, the renowned botanist and taxonomist, who declared "God creates; Linnaeus organizes" and led an expedition to Lapland in 1732. And Goethe himself, who traveled through Italy in the late 1700s and developed revolutionary ideas about the relationship between plants and the world. Incorporating scientific concepts, the novel delves into a myriad of complex themes, examining the contrasts between modern India and its colonial past, urban and rural life, capitalism and traditional practices of generosity and gratitude, written language and oral traditions. At its core, the book presents a struggle between opposing perspectives