If you met Cinderella in the high school cafeteria, would you recognize her? Look past her caution-taped eyes and talk to her? Could you help her to write a new chapter in her story? With the help of a few choice Sticky Notes, high school senior Lagan Desai pursues transfer student, Talia Vanderbilt, peeling back her life of secrets, one Post-it-sized question at at a time.
Swimming Through Clouds by Rajdeep Paulus
What it's about (from publisher Playlist Fiction):
When high school cell phone disruption forces a classroom ban, the words on a Post-it note spark a sticky romance between two unlikely friends. Transfer student Talia Vanderbilt has one goal at her new school: to blend in with the walls. Lagan Desai, basketball captain and mathlete, would do just about anything to befriend the new girl. One Post-it note at a time, Lagan persuades Talia to peel back her heart, slowly revealing her treasure chest of pain—an absent mother, a bedridden brother, and an abusive father. In a world where hurt is inevitable, the two teens search for a safe place to weather the storms of life. Together.
Why you should read it: This novel surprised me in so many ways. With beautifully crafted poetic prose, author Rajdeep Paulus weaves fear and tragedy, hope and romance through a story that dictates you endure emotional anguish right along with her characters. When I say this is not an easy book to read, I am not speaking of vocabulary or comprehension levels, though there is a superb level of craft on display in this novel; I am speaking of the emotional depth of suffering through which this author dredges a reader's soul. Once you experience — for that is how it feels — the horrors of Talia's reality, it is impossible to disengage yourself from it. It is no wonder this novel has received so many award nominations and has garnered praise from critics, bestselling authors, and readers, alike. It is a work of art.
Talia is so fragile, so frightened, and so lonely — but she never comes off as weak, only as waiting to discover her strength. Lagan is steady, patient, creative and every bit the romantic hero she needs, but the prison within which Talia lives erects obstacles to his heroism. Although the physical, verbal, and emotional abuse suffered by Talia is beyond difficult to bear, even as a reader, it resonates as all-too-true, making Swimming Through Clouds the sort of story that lingers and begs you not to exit it unchanged.
“Please keep writing!”
The handwritten words are in a letter that Rajdeep Paulus carries around in her purse. Two teenage sisters sent it to her. They raced through Raj’s young adult novel Swimming Through Clouds and they wanted more. They urged her to write a sequel.
Raj has unfolded their letter and read it and refolded it so many times that it’s bound to fall apart one of these days. She keeps it in her purse anyway. “It makes such a difference to know that someone’s reading your work,” she says. “It totally made me cry because I couldn’t believe these two sisters stayed up all night with their Kindle, just going back and forth.”
I don’t know that I ever read a book where I saw myself, whether it was physically or my own journey just from a cultural point of view. I think it would have been really pretty amazing.... I love that I’m adding something to their bookshelf that’s different and unique."
Rajdeep Paulus
The sisters, like Raj herself, live in America and have family roots in South Asia. “They had never read a book like this,” Raj says, “where they actually saw themselves in the book, in terms of a character who physically looked like them, with a hero that was actually from an Indian background. I love that I’m adding something to their bookshelf that’s different and unique.” Raj has a clear memory of “the lack of diversity in the market back when I was a teenager growing up. I don’t know that I ever read a book where I saw myself, whether it was physically or my own journey just from a cultural point of view. I think it would have been really pretty amazing."
Swimming Through Clouds is a tough book. It’s about hope and kindness, but it’s also about child abuse, human-trafficking, domestic violence, and the isolation that can be part of immigrant life. Despair and cruelty haunt its pages. Raj’s most heroic characters find the strength to be compassionate at moments when it would be much easier to stand by and do nothing. She hopes Swimming Through Clouds will offer young people a fresh way of seeing the quiet kid at school, the outcast, the one who doesn't fit in.
“Maybe some teen who picks this book up will want to reach out to that kid,” she says. “I really want to be a writer who not just entertains but really challenges young people.” She hopes teens will enjoy the novel’s love story, “because I love a good love story. But I also hope their worlds will be kind of opened up a little to know that there’s a lot of heartache out there, and recognize how powerful little acts of kindness can be.”
Back when Swimming Through Clouds was just an unpublished manuscript, Raj won several writing prizes and got the attention of a few big traditional publishers. But all of them ultimately decided the story wasn't a good fit for their companies. Raj’s agent, a veteran of the book business, wasn’t ready to give up. He told her, “It’s a book that needs to be out there. Let’s get it out there.” He recommended that she publish independently and reach out to readers directly. So Raj put the book out with a small press that uses Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon’s self-service platform that makes it possible for anyone to put out a book.
Since then, Amazon customers have written 107 reviews of Swimming Through Clouds and given it outstanding ratings, an average 4.8 out of 5 stars. Raj has gone on to have many moments of connection with readers, including those sisters who sent her the “Please keep writing!” letter that she carries around in her purse. “It’s a reminder to me that – you know what? – somebody out there believes in me.”
Raj wrote that sequel the sisters wanted. She published it independently and has earned an average 4.9 stars from Amazon customers. A third and final book in the series is due out in spring 2015.
Rajdeep Paulus is one of thousands of authors being discovered by Amazon customers.
