WINNER OF THE PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE VCU/CABELL FIRST NOVELIST AWARD
LONGLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE
"Sometimes characters come along that demand a new kind of novel. The young women at the center of Ruchika Tomar's A Prayer for Travelers - elusive Penny and wounded Cale - are two spirits hitchhiking through geographies of dislocation and desire. The human collisions in Tomar's novel are emotionally seismic, and they leave us haunted and unsettled."
--Adam Johnson, author of The Orphan Master's Son
“Whoever you are, wherever you are reading these words, I wish I could take you (gently) by the lapels, look in your eyes, and say, Read this, it will awe you. Ruchika Tomar is a superb recognizer of the subtle and the elusive, of the exigencies of love and trauma. A Prayer for Travelers is one of the wild books that somehow shook itself free of the usual constraints so it could go for its own deep life, a forceful, strange, indelible book I am never going to get over.”
—Elizabeth Tallent, author of Mendocino Fire
“A Prayer for Travelers is a novel haunted by missing persons and lost souls, written in telepathic prose. Ruchika Tomar sees through walls, around corners, and into the deep heart of what matters, and moves us, the most. A beautiful debut.” —Ben Marcus, author of The Flame Alphabet
“Ruchika Tomar is an ace cartographer of the heart and its urgent, wild, unruly ways. Radiant with longing, A Prayer for Travelers is an unforgettable debut.” –R.O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries
“[A] scorching desert-noir. . . . Like her nervy protagonists, Tomar is a taker of risks.” —New York Times Book Review
“Breathtaking . . . For Penny and Cale, violence looms at all corners and in Tomar’s compassionate rendering, they are imbued with strength, fortitude and fierceness.” —San Francisco Chronicle
Barnes & Nobles “Discover Great New Writers” Pick
LitHub’s Most Anticipated Books 2019
Book Page’s 15 Women to Watch in 2019
Poets & Writers First Fiction 2019
Time Magazine, 6 Fiction Books You Should Read in July
Los Angeles Times, 7 Buzzworthy Books to Read this July
