‘One of the most versatile and talented writers of his generation’—Village Voice ‘
The stories in this volume combine the folk-art charm and easygoing improvisations of R.K. Narayan, with the compassion and evocative atmosphere of Chekhov’—New York Times
‘Never has middle India appeared so enchanting . . . Such is Chaudhuri’s charm that one is utterly seduced by his tone of certitude in the rightness of what he remembers’—India Today
Amit Chaudhuri’s stories range from a divorcée about to enter into an arranged marriage to a teenaged poet who develops a relationship with a lonely widower, from a singing teacher struggling to make a living out of the boredom of his students to a gauche teenager desperate to hurdle past his adolescence. Ripe with subtlety, elegance and deep feeling, this is vintage Chaudhuri.
‘Chaudhuri’s writing is touched by a rare delicacy of description and a keen sense of the unwritten, unspoken rules that govern human relationships . . . a genuine talent’—Shashi Tharoor, LA Times Book Review
‘Chaudhuri displays extraordinary skill as a short story writer – a very difficult form indeed . . . fluid, limpid . . . subtle’—Nalini Jain, Book Review
‘Written with the practised ease of a craftsman . . . he is a writerly writer, as possibly Naipaul is, concentrating on his craft with complete dedication and concentration’—Debraj Mookerjee, Pioneer
About The Author:
Amit Chaudhuri is the author of five novels, the latest of which is The Immortals. Among the many prizes he has won for his fiction are the Commonwealth Literature Prize, the Betty Trask Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Sahitya Akademi Award. He is also a highly respected critic, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of East Anglia. Amit Chaudhuri lives in Kolkata and Norwich, and is also an acclaimed musician.
