Gayatribala Panda / Snehaprava Das
Librería Samer Atenea
Librería Aciertas (Toledo)
Kálamo Books
Librería Perelló (Valencia)
Librería Elías (Asturias)
Donde los libros
Librería Kolima (Madrid)
Librería Proteo (Málaga)
This collection has twelve captivating short stories.Stories like WITCH and THE CLAW foreground the social evils like pasting a label of a witch on an issueless woman and the exploitation of poor and helpless children by coercively engaging them in several criminal and illegal activities. A SONG FOR A SLAUGHTERER centres round the tragic life of the protagonist Karim who has entered into the meat-selling vocation more by default than by choice, and his futile effort to hide his woe under a fake joviality. BLACKIE is another moving and poignant tale of the love between a human child and a puppy. A mother with a deep-rooted aversion for dogs was forced rather by an emotional need to see her only son happy, to shelter a stray dog in the garage of her house. THE WHITE CROW is in a way an attempt to explore the subconscious through the creation of a dream sequence. FIRE FESTIVAL unravels the ugly and reprehensible caste-discrimination prevailing in the society. It also exposes the brute sadism in man often kept concealed under a veneer of civility. It is a tragic tale of a crippled young man of a lower caste who was thrown alive into the raging fire by a bunch of boys of higher caste families. The dramatic and eerie beginning of the story BRAMHA-DEMON that hints at the reality of the uncanny presence of some discontented spirit actually develops to be the tale of an illicit love affair between a Brahmin young man, the spoilt son of a wealthy landlord of the village and a lower caste woman Sushie who happens to be the wife of Daiya, a farmhand employed by his father. GRANDFATHER’S NOTEBOOK narrates the tale of a young girl sentenced to a lifelong remorse for not being able to fulfil the dying wish of her beloved grandfather who had to compromise with his writing career for providing a living to his family. THE DEAL is the story of Debadutta, a low-paid correspondent in a newspaper office and his difficult dilemma. An honest newspaper correspondent and a young man of self-esteem Debadutta falls victim to the evil designs of his corrupt and manipulating boss. VICTORY MARCH tells us about a man’s goading passion to retrieve his ancestral property from the clutches of his greedy and hostile relatives. An unexpected text message brings the bitter memory of a past episode back to life in THE FACE OF YESTERDAY. A forgotten love story comes alive fresh and vivid in her mind and so too her deep seated resentment for the man of her past who she had decided to share her future with but who had abandoned her without a strong or valid reason when Suman receives a text message from him on her mobile phone at the late hours of a night. MY TRUTH MY STORY assails the despicable and unhealthy custom of polyandry that still prevails in some parts of the country.
