Category: Short Stories
Publisher: Rupa Publications India
Rights: World rights available (excluding Indian subcontinent)
Easily one of the most towering figures of Bengali literature of the twentieth century, Buddhadeva Bose was as prolific as he was versatile. A poet of renown, Bose was also an accomplished playwright, novelist, essayist and shortstory writer. His prose is marked by invention, refreshing modernity and an easy yet deep engagement with timeless themes – love, the nature of memory and the complexity of the relationship between man and woman – qualities which keep Boses work enduringly relevant.
This collection brings together seven stories and two oneact plays which embody all of these qualities. In The Love Letter, Birupaksha Ray, a translator and a linguist, receives a ciphered missive from an old flame, unlocking which could occupy the rest of his life in A Scent of Tulsi, Mihir, a husband comfortable in his patriarchy discovers a side to his wife, Kamala, which shakes up his world. And in Twenty five Years After – or Before, a oneact play, old lovers meet by chance at an international airport and talk about opportunities missed and those not taken.
Translated by Arunava Sinha with trademark flair and accuracy, The Love Letter and Other Stories demonstrates why Buddhadeva Bose occupies such a premier position in Bengali literature. This volume will appeal to Boses fans as well as to all lovers of great fiction.
The author: Buddhadeva Bose
Translated to English by Arunava Sinha