by Anita Desai
First published 2011
An unnamed government official walks through a crumbling mansion filled with artifacts collected by its absent owner. Each room holds treasures sent back from distant travels, but the final discovery lurks in the shadows. Middle-aged Prema reconnects with her successful friend Tara at a school reunion. When Tara offers her translation work, Prema finds new purpose but begins crossing the boundary between translator and writer, threatening everything she has built. High in the Himalayan mountains, Ravi lives alone in the burned ruins of his family home. He guards his solitude and a secret hidden in the surrounding woods. When a Delhi film crew invades his retreat, Ravi responds by withdrawing deeper into himself until he achieves the ultimate escape. Set across modern India where the past still shapes the present, these three stories follow people who perfect their own forms of self-erasure.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary, asian-american
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-driven, slice-of-life
Setting: India, Himalayan Mountains
Period: modern
156 pages · Hardcover · Houghton Mifflin Harcourt