•Random House Canada (hbk Spring '08; pbk Spring '09)
•Harcourt USA (hbk Fall '08; pbk Fall '09)
•Also Indian, Italian, Dutch, and Australian editions

Two "Reading Guides" are now available: Random House Canada's and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's.

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Inspired by family history, Viswanathan takes us deep into the private world of a Brahmin clan, bringing to life an India we've never seen. At the novel's heart is Sivakami, married at ten, widowed at eighteen. As her caste requires, her head is shaved and she wears widow's whites, and from dawn to dusk she cannot contaminate herself with human touch, not even to comfort her two small children. She dutifully follows custom, except for one defiant act: She returns to her husband's house to raise those children. Her servant, Muchami, bound by a very different set of caste rules, becomes her public face, and their singular bond holds three generations together through a turbulent half-century of social and political change.

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“Viswanathan's book, like Rushdie's work, aims for epic status. But it actually achieves something that is in many ways more nuanced than the broad brushstrokes of an epic: a meditation on fate's workings in a family dominated by the quiet rule of one woman — and the struggle of her son against the strictures of her belief.” —Washington Post

“[A] stunning first novel... The brilliance of The Toss of a Lemon rests not so much in its intricate plotting as in the compressed, poetic precision with which Viswanathan depicts a lost world.” —The Walrus

“Despite the grand themes it tackles, The Toss of a Lemon is as nuanced as it is expansive... Perhaps Viswanathan succeeds in being both epic and intimate because she is telling the story of her own family.” — Time Out (New Delhi)

“Despite the saga’s length, there are no dull moments or extraneous scenes. Most impressively, Viswanathan immerses readers in the realities of the caste system from both sides; in telling a universal story of generational differences on a personal level, she makes a vanished world feel completely authentic. Superbly done.” —Booklist

Starred Review: “Of a piece with the recent works of Vikram Seth, and reminiscent at times of García Márquez — altogether a pleasure.” —Kirkus

“Marriage at 10, in 1896, then motherhood at 14 and four years later a widow’s white sari — these are the determining events in the life of a Brahmin girl called Sivakami, the main character in [this] ambitious first novel... Padma Viswanathan has real talent.” —The New York Times

Starred Review: “The portrait she paints is dazzling. Gender rules, class relations, and the political castes of late 19th- and early to mid-20th-century India are well presented, making this an important work of historical fiction. Highly recommended for all collections.” —Library Journal

“Viswanathan mines her family's past in this exquisite debut novel... Beginning in India in 1892 with the marriage of 10-year-old Sivakami and ending in Canada in the 1960s, the story concerns the effects of arranged marriages, child brides, superstitions and Brahmin rituals. Viswanathan...changes names, invents history and shifts the point of view of her 600-page novel in the last four pages — ultimately breaking the rules of memoir and fiction. The effect is electrifying.” —The Baltimore Sun

“[This] fine and ambitious debut novel...beautifully (and effortlessly) opens a window on the life of a Brahmin widow. Because of the depth of the characterizations, it never feels like a history lesson..” —Uptown Magazine (Winnipeg)

“[B]eyond any plot points, The Toss of a Lemon records a passionate love affair with the English language. Many of the maximalist sentences are satisfyingly lush and rendered with a light touch.” —The Tennessean

“The Toss of a Lemon is a captivating novel that in relating the story of one Indian woman and her family tells the story of a changing society. Precisely and deftly written, constantly interesting, morally serious yet sympathetic — I challenge any reader to start reading this book and give up on it. It joins the company of the great novels on India.” —Yann Martel

“Padma Viswanathan has pulled an astonishing feat. It’s a brilliant tour de force.” —India Today

“What Viswanathan does remarkably well is give the reader a closeup of India’s history, culture, politics and landscape through the domestic lens of one family. This is a rich, sensual book... You feel as though you are right there in all the teeming daily detail of life as Sivakami and her family know it. There is a whole world here between two covers.” —National Post

“Full of vivid detail, strengthened by Viswanathan's meticulous research, this book is both a fascinating human story and an impressive social history.” —Hartford Courant

“Leaving the book feels like getting out of a warm bath on a cold day. Viswanathan is a charming writer, and I do not mean to belittle; one's senses are overwhelmed by a rich density... Viswanathan makes clear the fear and ferocious love motivating ancient tribes, clans and classes that cling to the old ways.” —Globe and Mail

“Viswanathan’s absorbing first novel, based on her grandmother's life, goes deep into the world of southern India village life... Viswanathan is especially adept at unobtrusively explaining foreign customs and worldviews to Westerners while wholly respecting the power and significance they hold for practitioners.” —Publishers Weekly

“[A] captivating novel, one I wanted to continue long beyond its 600-plus pages. I recommend it most highly.” —Historical Novels Review

“Viswanathan’s remarkable achievement is to capture the slow, stately pace of an 8,000-year-old culture and yet keep her story moving briskly. I closed the book indebted for this immersion into a world I could not otherwise have entered.” —Shyam Selvadurai

“Viswanathan’s debut novel is deceptively quiet and quietly brilliant... You don’t realize you’re on an epic journey in the midst of a generational saga until you’re well along and it’s far, far too late to turn back. Not that you’d want to. Not that you even could... The Toss of A Lemon is astonishing. Brilliant. Beautiful. I learned a great deal about 20th century India that I did not know before. That’s secondary, of course. Like the very best novels, at its core, The Toss of A Lemon teaches us about ourselves.” —January Magazine

“The Toss of a Lemon is a glorious feat, as boisterously written as it is wholly engrossing. It’s about love — and cruelty — and how each reverberate across the generations in one family. And it is that rare thing, a novel that manages to be both epic and intimate at the same time.” —Peter Orner

“The world into which Padma Viswanathan plunges her reader in The Toss of a Lemon, her first novel, is a revelation: an ordered, profoundly exotic universe.” —Montreal Gazette

“We are left wondering what will happen as all cultures in the world continue to converge — will a collective future become more important than singular, personal pasts? — a mystery that the book earns, and one that haunts us well after closing the back cover.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Viswanathan does an excellent job of showing how customs help define individuals and their communities. Religious and caste beliefs infuse every action, whether characters are conservative, like Sivikami, or pushing for change, like her son, Vairum. Just as the subcontinent goes through upheavals, Sivikami's family does too, and independence on a national level has repercussions on an intimate level.” —Edmonton Journal

“This soaring new novel, inspired by the author’s family history, will draw comparisons to The God of Small Things, but Viswanathan has a voice and a vision all her own.” —Chatelaine

“In this debut novel, Padma Viswanathan offers a sweeping narrative of a Brahmin family that must redefine itself when the nation undergoes political and social upheavals... The family...serves as a fascinating microcosm of a nation that is freeing itself of vestiges of colonialism and class divisions.” —Quill & Quire

“Lovers of Rohinton Mistry and Vikram Seth will want to get hold of this Brahmin family saga involving early marriage, early widowhood and clashing values.” —Vancouver Sun

“Viswanathan sustains a vivid sense of the moment while spanning decades, brings unforgettable characters to life while recounting the saga of generations, and lays bare the inner worlds of those characters while evoking an entire nation in turmoil. Rich with sensual detail, The Toss of a Lemon is the story of a community centred on tradition during an era of upheaval and change. Above all, it is a moving and deftly drawn portrait of a family.” —Alissa York