'Tania James comes at you like everyone you’ve ever cared about, like everyone you’ve ever lost. Wise and hilarious, her Atlas is an astonishment of a debut, so radiant with life, with love, with good old human struggle that I had trouble detaching myself from its pages. James's prevaricating bikini-waxing husband-dodging beautiful-crazy sisters followed me into my day, into my dreams. Take this book from someone, give it to someone – you will not go wrong. Atlas is that damned good.'

Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

'This warm and, at times, very funny story could be about sisters and families everywhere, with its secrets, eccentricities and misunderstandings. An absolute joy to read.'

(Australian Women's Weekly)

'The novel is about independence and freedom. It brilliantly explores the multiple ways our history haunts us, the ways we might embrace that and, simultaneously, the ways we attempt to free ourselves from it.'

'4 and 1/2 Stars!', Louise Swinn (The Big Issue)

'James’s delightful first novel explores the hazards and rewards of wanting more than life willingly allots …. The author, a young Indian-American, writes with poise, sly humor and an acuity both cultural and sensuous: In New York, when a fellow Indian immigrant hires Anju to work in his beauty salon, he observes approvingly that she “squats like only a third-worlder can, froglike for minutes on end, brushing tumbleweeds of black and hennaed hair into a dustpan.” …. [T]he characters’ love for one another radiates off the pages. While recognizing the value of ambition, James also sees the rich comforts of knowing one’s place — especially when that place boasts banana trees and masala dosa.'

'Editor's Choice', (The New York Times Book Review)

'The beautifully observed characters are engaging and draw the reader effortlessly into their different dreams and aspirations ... This is a wonderful book for mothers and daughters.'

Sandy McCutcheon (The Courier Mail)

'Tania James has created a vivacious domestic drama on a crosscultural canvas that has an appealing, Austen-like attention to character and social setting.'

(The Age)

'Atlas of Unknowns is the story of two sisters, separated by two countries — the United States and India — but also by jealousy and secrets. Tania James weaves these two narratives together seamlessly, threading together an intricate narrative that explores the nature of immigration and also the price paid by women struggling to find their place in the world. Share this book with your mother, your sister, your friend — they will thank you for it.'

Hannah Tinti, author of The Good Thief

'Debut novelist Tania James maps her characters’ yearnings and missteps with the skills of a seasoned cartographer. Dazzling, original, witty, and poignant, Atlas of Unknowns is one of the most beguiling first novels I’ve read in years.'

Ann Packer, author of The Dive from Clausen’s Pier and Songs without Words

'James writes with a silken elegance and solid assurance that will garner inevitable comparison to Jhumpa Lahiri, accolades that are both apt and well-deserved.'

(Booklist)

‘A powerful and nuanced debut … Tania James paints the dual worlds of the novel — India and America — with masterful care, choosing beautiful, shocking details, and peopling them with characters we will remember long after closing the book’

Chitra Divakaruni

'James paints Kerala and immigrant New York with identical depth and ease, and the story is a readable balance of well-crafted plot and artful emotion.'

(Publishers Weekly )

'A touching debut with a range of tones, from the sweet to the sordid.'

(Kirkus Reviews )

'I'm also supremely excited for the release of Atlas of Unknowns, a first-novel by the wildly-talented young author, Tania James. Sometimes you just know you're in good hands from word one. Atlas of Unknowns is a split-between-two-continents family saga, where one sister from an Indian family is sent to America on a scholarship that goes awry. It's a perceptive, carefully observed, and endearingly funny book. And James manages to move between the two worlds and the two sisters' lives with ease. She really has all the storyteller's gifts. I'm convinced James is going to be a force to be reckoned with.'

Nathan Englander (Waterstones magazine)