In these fourteen stories, Cameron Raynes traverses landscapes of regret, joy and redemption. In a country town, a woman plots to ruin her rival with an act steeped in racism. A welfare worker is asked to spy on a colleague. And in the award-winning title story, a taxi driver accepts a fare he knows he shouldn't: They headed east, the nude hills of the Geraldton plains, stripped of their trees a century before, leaning into them on both sides as the car climbed into the marginal country. Behind him, Luke heard the gurgle of fluid sluicing out of a bladder and into a cup, smelt the sweet stink of cheap wine. It occurred to him that it was not too late to turn back.
These deceptively simple stories uncover both the complexity and irony of women’s lives in Bhutan today. They show how ordinary lives, choices and experiences are both remarkable and poignant. In ‘I am a Small Person’, a despised woman uses her femininity as a means to control a man; the young girl in ‘I Won’t ask Mother’ suddenly feels empowered and confident when she makes a decision without consulting her mother. All the stories take place in rural settings, to which creeping urbanisation brings gradual change, and tensions surface between the new and the old, or the traditional and the modern. For many rural women, being able to connect to the city and all its perceived power and glamour is a very real aspiration. This yearning is exemplified in ‘Look at her Belly Button,’ where a young woman effortlessly slips out of the role of a farmer to become a ‘real Bhutanese’ urbanite. Published by Zubaan.
In This Book The Twelve Short Stories, Selected From That Corpus And Translated Into English, For The First Time, Deal With Material And Spiritual Bankruptcy. The Stories Portray Kolkata Of The Thirties And Forties Of The Twentieth Century When Famine-War-Partition Ruled Hand-In-Hand
In these stories of Indian life in Trinidad in the 1940s and 50s, Ismith Khan brings to vivid life the morning smells of eggplant frying in coconut oil, and herrings baking in the embers of the earthen fireplace; childhoods such as Pooran's, who has to make his way between the poetic mythology of the pundit and the cold, rationalistic materialism of his science teacher, or 'Thiney Boney' who, newly arrived in Port of Spain from the country, has to choose between his new Creole friends and his father's harsh moral certainties. These are not comfortable childhoods, and several stories show the pressures of poverty and despair leading to the abuse of children by their parents. Stories deal with the trauma of urbanisation as Indians are drawn from the country to Port of Spain, though even in the villages, where the shining metal of the oil refineries dwarfs the grasscutter tending his oxen, old ways must change. Ismith Khan brings a tender and affecting style to stories of troubled childhoods, questioning youth and adult struggle. This is beautiful writing to savour beyond place and time. "The brilliant short story 'A Day in the Country' has a home in my heart. It reminded me of the intense, uplifting genius of Thomas Wolfe's (1900-1938) short story 'Circus at Dawn'. In both stories the concentration on life, on living, on things seen, heard and felt, is so full and rich that plot becomes unnecessary. But 'A Day in the Country' is much more than a generous slice of life, and it does much more than revel in secure country childhood, or celebrate boyhood in the countryside. It makes a moving, ominous communication about the unsheltering of Trinidad, about its unprepared journey, from the 'Drinking Rum and Coca Cola' years of the 40s and 50s to the bewildering, homogeneous brutality of the 20th century." Keith Jardim, The Trinidad Guardian Ismith Khan was born in Trinidad in 1925. He is the author of The Jumbie Bird and The Obeah Man. He lived in New York until his death in 2002.
Masterly crafted Novella and two Short stories that restores Art in Literature. Protagonists, here are living a life led by their own feelings. Like a hummingbird they symbolize the enjoyment of life and lightness of being. Their adaptability, resilience, quality of being in the present moment, independence and playfulness adds joy in reader’s life and mind, indeed. Dear Reader, read and relish few free-spirited aesthetic moments!
"Quinton's Rouseabout and Other Stories" from 1908 is a short story collection from the prominent Australian writer Edward Sorenson. His topics are Australian wildlife, life in the bush, and gold mines, where Sorenson spent a considerable part of his young years. The book contains many of his famous stories as "The Man in the Mountain," "Bandy Hollow," "Under the Gum Tree," and others.
