Aruna Chakravarti is the best-selling and critically acclaimed author of The Inheritors, Jorasanko and Daughters of Jorasanko. Her novel Suralakshmi Villa was adjudged ‘Novel of the Year (India 2020)’ by Indian Bibliography. Her translated works include an anthology of songs from Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitabitaan, Saratchandra Chattopadhyay’s Srikanta and Sunil Gangopadhyay’s Those Days, First Light and Primal Woman: Stories. Among the various awards she has received are Vaitalik Award, Sahitya Akademi Award and Sarat Puraskar.
A bhairavi claims she holds telephonic conversations with Goddess Kali. Is she a lying charlatan? Or is there more to her story? A woman whose birth is shrouded in mystery learns of the truth on her deathbed. Was it a dream? Or a vision? A woman falls from an upstairs window. Was it an accident, suicide or murder? The works of Aruna Chakravarti provide a fascinating window to the lives of women, forever caught on the cusp of modernity and tradition. In this striking collection of stories she effortlessly recreates the hidden, secret spaces of women’s lives. The vivid prose explores the inner recesses of a woman’s mind; her perception of loss and suffering; strength and weakness; triumph and defeat. Unfulfilled desires, illicit liaisons, psychological traumas, family secrets come together in an explosive mix, offering a mirror to our society.
