The Names They Give to God

The Names They Gave God Book Description Anjali Sachdeva, who was awarded a scholarship by the National Endowment for the Arts, entered the long list of The Story Award in 2018 with her first book, The Names They Gave God, and won the Chautauqua Prize in 2019. Her stories were described by The New York Times as "they begin in our own and move on to another reality with such grace and use of the fantastic so well that we can't help but believe in them." A woman waiting for her husband, who does not return from where he went, gets lost in a cave he discovered. A man, weakened by glass particles settling in his lungs, goes to Egypt for an archaeological excavation, following his daughter who looks after him. John Milton talks to angels when writing Paradise Lost. Two women kidnapped by Boko Haram find a way to control men. Mermaids are seductive and people are forced to work with mechanical hands. The Names They Give God by Anjali Sachdeva is a book that manages to create completely different worlds with each story and looks at our lives from one step beyond reality. “When you finish one of his stories, you feel like you have lived a complete life, and then you are born breathlessly into another life.” –Carmen Maria Machado “One of the best story books I have read. “Each story also attracts attention.” –Roxane Gay (From the Promotional Bulletin)