In northern India, an eighty-year-old woman slips into a deep depression after the death of her husband, and then resurfaces to gain a new lease on life. Her determination to fly in the face of convention - including striking up a friendship with a transgender person - confuses her bohemian daughter, who is used to thinking of herself as the more 'modern' of the two. To her family's consternation, Ma insists on travelling to Pakistan, simultaneously confronting the unresolved trauma of her teenage experiences of Partition, and re-evaluating what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman, a feminist. Rather than respond to tragedy with seriousness, Geetanjali Shree's playful tone and exuberant wordplay results in a book that is engaging, funny, and utterly original, at the same time as being an urgent and timely protest against the destructive impact of borders and boundaries, whether between religions, countries, or genders.

Tomb of Sand

Literature & Fiction

GEETANJALI SHREE

Literary

Penguin Hamish Hamilton PRH

Our City That Year

Penguin/Hamish Hamilton

Mai: Silently Mother

Penguin

The Roof Beneath Their Feet

Hamish Hamilton

An eighty\-year\-old woman slips into a deep depression at the death of her husband, then resurfaces to gain a new lease on life. Her determination to fly in the face of convention including striking up a friendship with a hijra (trans) woman confuses her bohemian daughter, who is used to thinking of herself as the more \x27modern\x27 of the two. At the older woman\x27s insistence they travel back to Pakistan, simultaneously confronting the unresolved trauma of her teenage experiences of Partition, and re\-evaluating what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman, a feminist. Rather than respond to tragedy with seriousness, Geetanjali Shree\x27s playful tone and exuberant wordplay results in a book that is engaging, funny, and utterly original, at the same time as being an urgent and timely protest against the destructive impact of borders and boundaries, whether between religions, countries, or genders.

Tilted Axis Press

Maai (Hindi Edition)

Rajkamal Prakashan

A glimpse into the life and consciousness of women of three generations and of the men around them, in a North Indian middle class family. Written in a deceptively simple style, the novel weaves a web of images and events around Mai, the mother, as seen through the eyes of the daughter. The translation from Hindi is followed by a discussion of the many nuances of mother the relationship of fiction to social science, and the question of translation.

Mai: A Novel

Zubaan

Behind the walls of a house in a North Indian town a whole world thrives of the joint family, their attendants, their visitors. Three generations of women and their men live different strategies of adjustment and achievement to accommodate or challenge patriarchy. They seem to fit in recognised frames, but what are the subtle machinations behind the apparent stereotypes? It is that which the novel uncovers, in a tale told in deceptively simple terms, using smells, sounds, tastes and flavours, scenes and tiny signs, and incidents of a daily and ordinary existence to build, weave by weave, a rich and layered tapestry, saying always more than is apparent. At the centre is mai, the mother, seemingly weak and silent, but it is she who holds together the subtle patterns of relationships and agencies, and quietly carves out a life for herself as also for those around. Her New Age children are obsessed with rescuing her from the prison and escaping themselves; but as the story unfolds, any simplistic notion of bondage and freedom goes for a toss. Profound stories of love and loss are lightly delivered.

Mai:Silently Mother

Translated by Nita Kumar

Niyogi Books

That Empty Space

Contemporary

HarperCollins India

Rajkamal Prakashan Ret Smadhi (Hb)

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Books by GEETANJALI SHREE