We Weren't Lovers Like That by Navtej Sarna
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

About time this book got a decent review, a review that it deserves:

'We Weren't Lovers Like That' was a book I discovered in my favourite book shop in Shimla and what drew me to this book was its diction, which I, being a sucker for poetry, immediately fell in love with. Much to my misfortune, I had no money to buy it that day and by the next day, the book was already sold.

Not less than three months later, my friend was reading a book which she claimed she read every winter (and she actually does!) For some strange and inexplicable reason, I didn't bother about the book or its title and when she read out the small quote in the beginning of novel, I failed miserably at appreciating its beauty. Little did I know that it was the very book I had been looking for, the very book that I had almost picked up and couldn't own! It was only a year later, while discussing Indian authors that I mentioned, in passing, to the same friend that 'We Weren't Lovers Like That' and how badly I wanted to read it but couldn't find it anywhere! Well, what can I say? So close and yet so far!

Anyway, about the book now: I won't go on writing about how amazingly poetic Navtej Sarna is. He is not poetic, he's just faithful to the genes he inherited from his parents!

And the book?
I loved the book. The language used, the scenes developed are so autobiographical that it comes across as someone's real story (a suggestion the author strongly denies).Anyone who has loved and lost will relate to the book in ways that cannot be explained. Anyone who hasn't lost loved ones yet, will experience the pain through this book. It is like the book talks to you almost like a living, breathing person.

Should you read it?
Why, of course, you should! This isn't a conventional love story like that, afterall!

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