Description
Book SynopsisBY ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL INDIAN WRITERS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
''There is so much to love and admire in these stories - their understanding of heartbreak, their attention to affection and love across many divides'' KAMILA SHAMSIE
''Hosain''s greatest strength lies in her ability to draw a rich, full portrait of her society'' ANITA DESAI
''Listen to me, child. You will be a woman soon and must behave well and with modesty. The Kazi will ask you three times whether you will marry Kalloo Mian. Now don''t you be shameless, like these modern girls, and shout gleefully Yes. Be modest and cry softly and say Hoon.''
A marriage is arranged between a little servant girl and a middle-aged cook with an opium habit; an idealistic political worker faces disillusionment; a man returns from years studying in England to a wife he scarcely knows; a conventional bride has her first encounter with her husband''s ''emancipated'' friends.
Trade Review
Hosain's books stir with life and the play of sunlight and rain. To read them is as if one had parted a curtain or opened a door, and strayed into the past . . . Hosain's greatest strength lies in her ability to draw a rich, full portrait of her society - ignoring none of its many faults and cruelties -- Anita Desai
There is so much to love and admire in these stories - their understanding of heartbreak, their attention to affection and love across many divides, their intelligence about power structures, their vividly drawn characters, their sly humour. Long after I finished reading, I found myself still recalling the tiny moments, so beautifully rendered, that made them come to life -- Kamila Shamsie
To each episode Attia Hosain brings a superb imaginative understanding and sense of poignancy of the smallest of human dramas * Sangat Review *
