The Greatest Gujarati Stories Ever Told - Hardcover

by Rita Kothari (Author)

The twenty-three stories in The Greatest Gujarati Stories Ever Told represent some of the finest short fiction

in Gujarati literature. Selected and edited by translator and writer Rita Kothari, this collection features

established literary masters such as K. M. Munshi, Dhumketu, Himanshi Shelat, Dalpat Chauhan, Nazir

Mansuri, and Mona Patrawalla, as well as accomplished new voices such as Panna Trivedi, Abhimanyu

Acharya, Raam Mori, and others.

In K. M. Munshi's epistolary 'A Letter', a childbride is worked to her death as she yearns for her husband's

affection; in Neerav Patel's 'Creamy Layer', the politicized, urban, and upwardly mobile Mr and Mrs

Vaghela must confront the deep chasm that has grown between them and their family in the village;

in Panna Trivedi's 'Maajo', the story's eponymous young narrator longs for butter-soft skin and a Shah

Rukh-like glance from a young man on the train; in 'Saubhagyavati: The Fortunate Wife', Dwiref explores

the selfish and oppressive nature of marital sex; in 'A Drop of Blood' Jayant Khatri looks at how violent

acts engender more violence; Mona Patrawalla explores the tribal region of the Dangs and paints a hair raising picture of the violent forms of power wielded by the Parsi landlords there in 'The Black Horse'; in

Dashrath Parmar's 'Nandu', the narrator struggles to hide his caste in the face of insistent questions; in

'Jumo Bhishti' by Dhumketu, we see the wonderful bond between Jumo and his beloved buffalo, Venu;

and in Abhimanyu Acharya's 'Chunni', a young woman, Shaili, navigates the world of dating in a city

far away from home-these and other stories in the collection are passionate, profound, and timeless,

showcasing a range of styles and offering a variegated and singular picture of Gujarat.

Author Biography

Rita Kothari is the Vani Foundation Distinguished Translator, and has translated widely from Gujarati and Sindhi. A multilingual scholar, Kothari speaks and writes on language politics, translation theory, Partition, and border studies. She is the author of Translating India, The Burden of Refuge, and numerous other publications. She teaches at Ashoka University, Sonepat, India.