A group of nine are trapped in the visa office at an Indian Consulate after a massive earthquake in an American city. Two visa officers on the verge of an adulterous affair; Jiang, a Chinese-Indian woman in her last years; her gifted teenage granddaughter Lily; an ex-soldier haunted by guilt; Uma, an Indian-American girl bewildered by her parents’ decision to return to Kolkata after twenty years; Tariq, a young Muslim man angry with the new America; and an enraged and bitter elderly white couple. As they wait to be rescued—or to die—they begin to tell each other stories, each recalling ‘one amazing thing’ in their life, sharing things they have never spoken of before. Their tales are tragic and life-affirming, revealing what it means to be human and the incredible power of storytelling.
Catagory: Literature & Fiction
A Girl Like That
Sixteen-year-old Zarin Wadia is many things: a bright and vivacious student, an orphan, a risk-taker. She’s also the kind of girl that parents warn their kids to stay away from: a troublemaker, whose many romances are the subject of endless gossip at school. You don’t want to get involved with a girl like that, they say. So how is it that eighteen-year-old Porus Dumasia has only ever had eyes for her? And how did Zarin and Porus end up dead in a car together, crashed on the side of a highway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia? When the religious police arrive on the scene, everything everyone thought they knew about Zarin is questioned. And as her story is pieced together, told through multiple perspectives, it becomes clear that she was far more than just a girl like that. This beautifully written debut novel from Tanaz Bhathena reveals a rich and wonderful new world to readers; tackles complicated issues of race, identity, class and religion; and paints a portrait of teenage ambition, angst and alienation that feels both inventive and universal.
Man Of Her Match
Love and cricket clash in this playful match of saucy quips and toecurling romance
Kicked off the team for a series of misdemeanours, Indian cricket’s playboy Vikram Walia finally has a chance at redemption. The only problem: it involves collaborating with his childhood best friend turned sworn enemy, Nidhi Marwah. Once a tomboy, now a gorgeous, self-assured marketing professional, Nidhi must put aside her personal dislike of Vikram because she needs his unparalleled fame and poster-boy good looks to spearhead her latest campaign.
But the ensuing battle of sardonic jibes and veiled slurs only heightens their blazing chemistry. Soon memories of their childhood fill their every moment together, pulling them back to that fateful day when a heartless act destroyed their friendship.
Can Vikram and Nidhi put their stormy past behind them? Will their partnership have a second innings?
Ha Ha Hu Hu
Ha Ha Hu Hu tells the delightful tale of an extraordinary horse-headed creature that mysteriously appears in London one fine morning, causing considerable excitement and consternation among the city’s denizens. Dressed in silks and jewels, it has the head of a horse but the body of a human and speaks in an unknown tongue. What is it? And more importantly, why is it here?
In the hilarious satire Vishnu Sharma Learns English, a Telugu lecturer is visited in a dream by the medieval poet Tikanna and the ancient scholar Vishnu Sharma with an unusual request: they want him to teach them English!
Velcheru Narayana Rao’s elegant translation is accompanied by an erudite introduction and afterword which illuminate the fascinating life and works of Viswanadha Satyanarayana.
The Complete Short Stories: Vol. 2
‘Premchand is India. If you haven’t read Premchand, you have missed out on a lot’ The Hindu
Munshi Premchand, widely lauded as the greatest Hindi fiction writer of the twentieth century, wrote close to 300 short stories over the course of a prolific career spanning three decades. His range and diversity were limitless as he tackled themes of romance and satire, gender politics and social inequality, with unmatched skill and compassion. By turns poignant, acerbic, comical and tragic, many of his stories powerfully invoke the countryside-its pastoral simplicity as well as its harsh realities-while others capture the hopes and anxieties that accompany life in a teeming city where the underdog and the exploiter are caught in an age-old conflict.
For the first time ever, Penguin Classics brings together Premchand’s entire short-fiction oeuvre for the delight of the English-speaking world. Along with M. Asaduddin’s illuminating Introduction, this pathbreaking anthology
features several stories not hitherto available either in Hindi or Urdu. Also included are comprehensive notes that provide the publication history of each story-highlighting the differences, sometimes significant and radical, between the Hindi and the Urdu versions of the same story-as well as a definitive chronology, making this a truly singular collection.
TRANSLATED BY M. ASADUDDIN AND OTHERS
The Complete Short Stories: Vol. 3
‘Premchand is India. If you haven’t read Premchand, you have missed out on a lot’ The Hindu
Munshi Premchand, widely lauded as the greatest Hindi fiction writer of the twentieth century, wrote close to 300 short stories over the course of a prolific career spanning three decades. His range and diversity were limitless as he tackled themes of romance and satire, gender politics and social inequality, with unmatched skill and compassion. By turns poignant, acerbic, comical and tragic, many of his stories powerfully invoke the countryside-its pastoral simplicity as well as its harsh realities-while others capture the hopes and anxieties that accompany life in a teeming city where the underdog and the exploiter are caught in an age-old conflict.
For the first time ever, Penguin Classics brings together Premchand’s entire short-fiction oeuvre for the delight of the English-speaking world. Along with M. Asaduddin’s illuminating Introduction, this pathbreaking anthology
features several stories not hitherto available either in Hindi or Urdu. Also included are comprehensive notes that provide the publication history of each story-highlighting the differences, sometimes significant and radical, between the Hindi and the Urdu versions of the same story-as well as a definitive chronology, making this a truly singular collection.
TRANSLATED BY M. ASADUDDIN AND OTHERS
The Complete Short Stories: Vol. 4
‘Premchand is India. If you haven’t read Premchand, you have missed out on a lot’ The Hindu
Munshi Premchand, widely lauded as the greatest Hindi fiction writer of the twentieth century, wrote close to 300 short stories over the course of a prolific career spanning three decades. His range and diversity were limitless as he tackled themes of romance and satire, gender politics and social inequality, with unmatched skill and compassion. By turns poignant, acerbic, comical and tragic, many of his stories powerfully invoke the countryside-its pastoral simplicity as well as its harsh realities-while others capture the hopes and anxieties that accompany life in a teeming city where the underdog and the exploiter are caught in an age-old conflict.
For the first time ever, Penguin Classics brings together Premchand’s entire short-fiction oeuvre for the delight of the English-speaking world. Along with M. Asaduddin’s illuminating Introduction, this pathbreaking anthology
features several stories not hitherto available either in Hindi or Urdu. Also included are comprehensive notes that provide the publication history of each story-highlighting the differences, sometimes significant and radical, between the Hindi and the Urdu versions of the same story-as well as a definitive chronology, making this a truly singular collection.
TRANSLATED BY M. ASADUDDIN AND OTHERS
The Complete Short Stories: Vol. 1
‘Premchand is India. If you haven’t read Premchand, you have missed out on a lot’ The Hindu
Munshi Premchand, widely lauded as the greatest Hindi fiction writer of the twentieth century, wrote close to 300 short stories over the course of a prolific career spanning three decades. His range and diversity were limitless as he tackled themes of romance and satire, gender politics and social inequality, with unmatched skill and compassion. By turns poignant, acerbic, comical and tragic, many of his stories powerfully invoke the countryside-its pastoral simplicity as well as its harsh realities-while others capture the hopes and anxieties that accompany life in a teeming city where the underdog and the exploiter are caught in an age-old conflict.
For the first time ever, Penguin Classics brings together Premchand’s entire short-fiction oeuvre for the delight of the English-speaking world. Along with M. Asaduddin’s illuminating Introduction, this pathbreaking anthology
features several stories not hitherto available either in Hindi or Urdu. Also included are comprehensive notes that provide the publication history of each story-highlighting the differences, sometimes significant and radical, between the Hindi and the Urdu versions of the same story-as well as a definitive chronology, making this a truly singular collection.
TRANSLATED BY M. ASADUDDIN AND OTHERS
Split
Who needs love? It only leads to trouble.
Noor is having the worst year of her life. First her mother decides to leave her father. Then her dad’s mother, the Horrible Old Crone, moves in to look after Noor (who’s sixteen and doesn’t need looking after, thank you very much). And she just knows the HOC is going to be mean about her mother because she never wanted her son to marry a Muslim. And now Noor has to attend some children-of-divorce thing after school-and her gang canNOT find out.
THEN she meets Ishaan. He’s funny and nerdy, and likes all the same things she likes. Except love is stupid, as she’s told everyone, and Ishaan isn’t her type anyway. He wears glasses, participates enthusiastically in the lame children-of-divorce thing, and would rather read than play football in the break like all the other boys.
Could love happen with someone who is the complete opposite of everything you’ve ever stood for? Can forgiveness squirm its way in with love?
Familiar Strangers
What if your husband’s ex-girlfriend makes
a sudden comeback into your lives?
Priya and Chirag are like several other modern couples, living life at breakneck speed, unknowingly stuck in the rut of a marriage that is obviously dying, if not already dead.
But things start to change when Priya’s position in Chirag’s life is threatened by his past-his
ex-girlfriend, who returns when they least expect it.
A third person’s entry into their marriage awakens emotions that have been dormant for too long.
But is it too late? Is the damage beyond repair?