Hali and Collected Stories

by G.V. Desani

G. V. Desani’s mystical epic Hali and the twenty-three stories collected here deepen and extend a literary vision of unquestioned originality. Hali is a masterpiece of lyrical haunting beauty. It is both a spiritual quest of mythic proportion and the revelation of a personal religion. This magnificent work has long been out of print, and is presented now in its first American edition. The stories which follow reveal the fabulist side of Desani. With satire, irony and winsome comedy, the author takes us on incredible visits into the sacred and profane — the earthy, demonic, and transcendent.

Genres: India

207 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1991

About the author

Govindas Vishnoodas Desani or G. V. Desani, (1909–2000) was a Kenyan-born, British-educated Indian writer and Buddhist philosopher. The son of a merchant, he began his career as a journalist, and achieved fame with the cult novel All About H. Hatterr (1948), considered one of the finest examples of literature in English and a novel that compares favourably with Joyce's Ulysses. He was for a time a university professor in America, and spent many years engaged in meditation at various monasteries. A second volume, Hali and Collected Stories, was published in 1991.

Reviews

[Anirban Nanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is subtle humor in every one of the stories in this collection but they are not as funny or as inventive as All About H. Hatterr. But the prose poem Hali seemed good to me. I liked that one.