The eleven stories cover a wide variety of themes, but all have in common the stylistic experimentalism which came to blossom fully in Tomb of Sand. There is an iconoclasm to Geetanjali Shree’s writing, especially beginning with this collection. Readers will soon learn that nothing is sacred to the author: narrative and genre conventions are summarily pushed off their pedestals and in their place we find…what? Entirely new ways of conceiving and presenting storytelling unfurl before us as we come to question our own rigid preconceptions of the short story genre. In one story, a woman spends all day compulsively walking in circles around her housing complex. There is no introduction, no explanation, no denouement. In another, a woman goes on a writer’s retreat, and in a pseudo-sci-fi turn of events, falls passionately in love with the sky. The other participants in the retreat are robots. In a third, “Butterflies” (included here), a narrator staying in a cottage in Kerala is overwhelmed with the grief over past events, but is surprised out of her self-indulgence by a mysterious group of young women who are either nurses or diabetes patients; she’s never sure which. Plots break, sentences shatter, grammar careens, new words are formed, and new narrative structures are erected and felled. Once Elephants Lived Here reveals to us the pathbreaking experiments that led to Geetanjali Shree’s magnum opus Tomb of Sand.
Catagory: Fiction
Fiction main category
Uprising
On a desolate, sinking island, a group of children witness their mothers living lives of cruelty and servitude.
Bought and sold by Amma, the sadistic madam who was once herself sold into slavery, the women have learned to accept their fate. Yet their children weave fantastic tales of escape, imagining that someday they will leave the island and enjoy a life of freedom.
When Kusum Khan, a young, educated woman from the city, is forcibly brought to the island, she too is subjected to Amma’s violent induction. Yet Kusum refuses to yield, and soon the collective complacency of her fellow prisoners turns into ferocity and defiance. Together, they begin a rebellion that will upend their island, their world and the very order of things. An earth-shattering drama of resistance and female power, Uprising gives voice to the silenced through the story of a revolution no one saw coming.
Wedding on the Maharaja Express
Vir has spent his life quietly loving Vani. Now, against all odds, he’s about to marry her on the opulent Maharaja Express—a moving palace for their week-long nuptials as they travel across India. But Vani doesn’t love him yet, so Vir makes a deal: if he can win her heart before the train reaches its final stop, the wedding goes ahead. If not, he walks away.
As the Maharaja Express keeps moving, the dreamy destination wedding soon becomes a runaway train for family drama. Exes show up uninvited. Blackmail, ego clashes over regressive traditions and betrayals disrupt the celebrations.
Then, after one explosive night, a guest is found dead.
With the train derailed and no one allowed to leave, every passenger becomes a suspect. On the Maharaja Express, love is a gamble, and someone is willing to kill to win.
The Girl in Chains
Kill the target. Kill the evidence. Kill yourself.
A killer who had never fired a gun in her life—until she took a perfect headshot. A puppet who didn’t know she had strings. A detective chasing ghosts through her grief.
At a packed rally in Delhi, a young woman calmly raises a pistol and executes a cabinet minister. Then, without hesitation, she turns the gun on herself. The media screams terrorism. The public whispers suicide. But CBI officer Simone Singh sees something colder. A setup.
While nursing her dying mother and fending off shadows from her past, Simone is hurled into the most personal case of her life. The assassin left behind no motive, no trail—just a single whispered name: Daayan.
Worse, Simone’s own partner, Inspector Lucas, is hiding a secret that could destroy everything they’ve built.
As the body count rises and Delhi spirals into chaos, Simone must uncover a conspiracy woven through power and silence. But in a game where everyone is a pawn, exposing the truth might be the very thing that finally breaks her.
Twisted, taut, and emotionally explosive, The Girl in Chains is a heart-stopping race against the truth that was never meant to survive.
ANDY WEIR 3 BOOKS BOXSET: Andy Weir 3 Books Boxset: Project Hail Mary, The Martian and Artemis | NEW YORK TIMES Bestselling Sci-Fi Space Adventure Collection
* Soon to be a major motion picture starring Ryan Gosling *
* 100 Best Books of the 21st Century *
From the bestselling author Andy Weir comes a thrilling 3-book collection that redefines modern science fiction. Dive into worlds of danger, discovery, and determination where science meets survival and humanity’s brilliance shines brightest.
Includes Three Critically Acclaimed Novels:
Project Hail Mary
A lone astronaut wakes up light-years from Earth with no memory—and humanity’s fate in his hands. As he pieces together his past, he uncovers an interstellar mystery that will test every ounce of his ingenuity and courage.
The Martian
Stranded on Mars after a mission gone wrong, astronaut Mark Watney must rely on sheer wit, humor, and science to survive against impossible odds. A story of resilience and human spirit that inspired the blockbuster film starring Matt Damon.
Artemis
In the first city on the Moon, smuggler Jazz Bashara gets caught in a high-stakes conspiracy that could change lunar civilization forever. A fast-paced, witty heist set against a vividly imagined lunar backdrop.
Why You’ll Love This Box Set:
• Three gripping, standalone sci-fi adventures packed with humour, science, and heart.
• Perfect for fans of space exploration, survival thrillers, and hard science fiction.
• A collector’s edition celebrating Andy Weir’s signature blend of realism and imagination.
• Great gift for fans of Interstellar, Gravity, and Dune.
Join humanity’s greatest adventures beyond Earth where survival, science, and spirit collide.
Andal: The Autobiography of a Goddess
Winner of the Muse India Translation Prize (2018), Priya Sarukkai Chabria and Ravi Shankar’s elegant new translations of eighth-century Tamil poet and founding saint Andal, cements her status as the South Indian corollary to Mirabai. In this one volume is her entire corpus, composed before she apocryphally merged with the idol of her chosen god as a young teenager, leaving behind the still popular song of congregational worship, the Thiruppavai, a collection of thirty pasuram (stanzas) sung for Lord Tirumal (Vishnu) and the much less frequently translated and rapturously erotic Nacchiyar Thirumoli.
I Died Too Early
‘I died in pieces. But the day I started loving myself,
the broken parts began blooming again.’
I Died Too Early is a collection for those who learnt pain too young and kept loving long after it hurt.
These poems and quiet reflections trace heartbreak, childhood wounds, womanhood and the slow return
to yourself after being broken.
The pages hold the voices of those who grew up too fast and carried more than they ever said out loud.
For anyone who has ever felt lost or unseen, this book is a reminder that healing happens gently,
in small, blooming pieces.
May these pages remind you that you lived through what tried to end you.
The Accidental Love (Steele Shadows Security Series 3)
His protection. Her faith.
An everlasting love.
When undercover agent Lexi York shows up demanding protection, ex-Marine Gunner Steele has every reason to turn her away. Celeste is missing, his family is battling many demons, and the pressure is killing him on the inside.
He’s ready to slam the door, until she reveals she has the lead he’s been hunting for ages.
Whip-smart and dangerously irresistible, she is a complication Gunner doesn’t need—and the only woman
who’s ever made him question his mission. Soon the line between protector and temptation blurs into something far more lethal.
In this game, trust is deadly. And love could be your most expensive—and intoxicating—mistake.
With the past closing fast, Gunner is forced to confront what burns deeper: the revenge consuming him, or the woman who might finally pull him back from the edge.
The Accidental Promise (Steele Shadows Securities Series Cabin 2)
HIs protection. Her love.
An irresistible bond.
And when a killer comes for her, Axel Steele is the only one standing between her and death.
A former special-ops Marine, Axel is the quiet Steele brother—the planner, the protector, the one who keeps chaos at bay. Routine is his armour; control is his weapon.
Until the night he finds Erika Zajac, a defiant, beautiful, reckless labyrinth of a woman hiding secrets that could get her killed.
She’s fire. He’s ice. And the spark between them is immediate, impossible, and addictive.
With long-buried family tensions threatening to explode, and Erika’s past catching up with her, Ax finds himself caught in the crossfire of fate.
Every touch, every glance fans a wildfire he cannot contain.
The killer is relentless, the stakes high—but the biggest threat of all may be the woman daring him to feel
alive again.
The Accidental Protector (Steele Shadows Security Series Cabin 1)
His protection. Her heart.
A love that changes everything.
After a brutal attack leaves prosecutor Niki Avery on the run, she takes refuge at a remote security compound—under the protection of Gage Steele, a former Marine with a lethal temper and a magnetic pull she can’t resist.
Gage never wanted to return home to take over his late father’s security firm. But the moment Niki walks through his door—sharp, stubborn, and breathtaking—everything changes.
Secrets about his father’s suspicious death surface, and danger stalks her again.
Niki is his client. Completely off-limits. But why does he feel like she only belongs to him?
Now Gage must choose: maintain his distance and risk losing her—or cross the line and claim the woman who could destroy everything he’s built.
Protecting her is survival. Wanting her is inevitable.