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The women who would not die
‘…stories that scorch with their haunting images and unblinking truthfulness. Love, violence, hope, terror, tenderness and cruelty mingle to portray ancient wounds, tragically relevant even today.’—Mitra Phukan
In the first story in this collection, ‘Andolan’, the narrator returns to the small town of Barbari where once her father and other community leaders reclaimed forest and wasteland to become zamindars. Barbari saw an influx of new migrant labourers and the town took on a cosmopolitan character, which was harmonious on the surface, masking simmering discontent. When these hidden conflicts erupt, the narrator finds herself a virtual prisoner in a town that is engulfed in the flames of a deadly ethnic riot.
Migrants, women, children and other vulnerable people appear in the rest of the stories constantly faced with violence, both political and personal. In ‘This is How We Lived’, when a woman disappears for a day or two, and returns to wash herself several times in the river, no one in the village protests. It is after all, a trade-off between them and the soldiers—the rape of one woman for the lives of the rest. Ethnic violence is at its most horrifying in ‘Sin and Retribution’ when a young militant learns too late what it is to kill another human being. In ‘I Thought I Knew My Ma’ and ‘I Do Not Love Sam’, love takes on different hues when it is between a high-born Assamese and an Adivasi, a Brahmin and a Muslim.
Folk narratives weave themselves into the stories like ‘Beloved of Flowers’ and ‘The Women Who Would Not Die’, revealing a sense of hope, resilience, and restoration, despite hate and terror.
In this stunning collection, Uddipana Goswami chronicles a deeply fragmented society where people live, love and lose amidst everyday war and violence, but still find ways to cope and heal. In prose that is both poetic and powerful, she conveys through a novelist’s pen a picture of Assam that is more searing and vivid than even the most rigorous reportage.
In the first story in this collection, ‘Andolan’, the narrator returns to the small town of Barbari where once her father and other community leaders reclaimed forest and wasteland to become zamindars. Barbari saw an influx of new migrant labourers and the town took on a cosmopolitan character, which was harmonious on the surface, masking simmering discontent. When these hidden conflicts erupt, the narrator finds herself a virtual prisoner in a town that is engulfed in the flames of a deadly ethnic riot.
Migrants, women, children and other vulnerable people appear in the rest of the stories constantly faced with violence, both political and personal. In ‘This is How We Lived’, when a woman disappears for a day or two, and returns to wash herself several times in the river, no one in the village protests. It is after all, a trade-off between them and the soldiers—the rape of one woman for the lives of the rest. Ethnic violence is at its most horrifying in ‘Sin and Retribution’ when a young militant learns too late what it is to kill another human being. In ‘I Thought I Knew My Ma’ and ‘I Do Not Love Sam’, love takes on different hues when it is between a high-born Assamese and an Adivasi, a Brahmin and a Muslim.
Folk narratives weave themselves into the stories like ‘Beloved of Flowers’ and ‘The Women Who Would Not Die’, revealing a sense of hope, resilience, and restoration, despite hate and terror.
In this stunning collection, Uddipana Goswami chronicles a deeply fragmented society where people live, love and lose amidst everyday war and violence, but still find ways to cope and heal. In prose that is both poetic and powerful, she conveys through a novelist’s pen a picture of Assam that is more searing and vivid than even the most rigorous reportage.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published July 1, 2024
2 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
Uddipana Goswami
10 books6 followersUddipana Goswami (Assamese: উদ্দিপনা গোস্বামী) is an Indian poet, academic, editor, author and media consultant. She is from Assam, India.
She is Assamese literature editor of Muse India, a literary e-journal.
(from Wikipedia)
She is Assamese literature editor of Muse India, a literary e-journal.
(from Wikipedia)
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December 21, 2024Have you ever wondered what it feels like to be a woman?
People look at us as a fragile and delicate thing.
Often they write about it. Compare us with feathers.
But are we truly that?
Then how can we bleed 4-7 days every month & still keep on serving our responsibilities?
Then how can a woman go through bone-breaking pain to bring new lives?
Then how can we smile even after daily battles with those unknown hands and eyes in buses, metros, or trains waving through us?
These are just the tips of the iceberg, and in " The Women Who Would Not Die, Uddipana Goswami tells us the stories of us, the women.
The story revolves around a tea estate in Assam and shows the political unsettlement and the battle of people's identity. And each story, there's a woman or women who suffered in each circumstance. But they keep on living.
It's one of the most brilliant short story collections by an Indian author I have come across!
Peeps, go & get yourself a copy!
People look at us as a fragile and delicate thing.
Often they write about it. Compare us with feathers.
But are we truly that?
Then how can we bleed 4-7 days every month & still keep on serving our responsibilities?
Then how can a woman go through bone-breaking pain to bring new lives?
Then how can we smile even after daily battles with those unknown hands and eyes in buses, metros, or trains waving through us?
These are just the tips of the iceberg, and in " The Women Who Would Not Die, Uddipana Goswami tells us the stories of us, the women.
The story revolves around a tea estate in Assam and shows the political unsettlement and the battle of people's identity. And each story, there's a woman or women who suffered in each circumstance. But they keep on living.
It's one of the most brilliant short story collections by an Indian author I have come across!
Peeps, go & get yourself a copy!
August 26, 2024
this was a brilliant collection of short stories and i was absolutely swept away by them. the women who would not die is a collection of 12 short stories, all surrounding the Assamese identity and the Assamese experience. ranging from outrage, anger, regret, to love, nostalgia, and imposter syndrome, the stories brought out all the emotions in me as the reader. it was a proper cathartic experience for me.
andolan portryaed the nuances of community, religion, and culture so well. it spoke the truths about the barriers amidst the assamese cosmopolitan and it stands true even in contemporary times. i thought i knew my ma was another story beautifully told while exploring the character's own life. she juxtaposes it with the life her mother once lived. it really makes us understand that we do not really know our mothers - and we will never know them as the girls they once were.
in sin and retribution, we see a different side to the assam andolan - the more violent one - and and idea of how it may have come about. in i don't love sam, the author adds a romantic angle to the differences brought on my separate ethnic identities among the people. colours is a story set in the geographical space of the kalguri tea estate in barbari, a reoccuring space in the author's stories. the next story named this is how we lived gave me goosebumps. it showed a very dark side of the government's intervention in the insurgency scenario in the northeast, and the price that women have to payh in exchange for the whole community's safety.
write romola was very powerful and raw adn made me feel so many things - one of which admittedly, feeling angry at the entire male section of our society. in the sponymous story, the women who would not die, we saw the author beautifully mixing the assamese stories and folktales that we grew up with, with the aftermath of the 2003 government operation on insurgency.
body, bones and all had a beautiful and poetic storytelling. beloved of flowers was another beautiful story that brings together folktales, dark family secrets adn the burden of power and priviledge. lastly, in the story never got written, we see a young mother coping with life and the challenges thrown at her, coupled with her responsibilities as a mother, and that of a writer. it also explored a lot of the writing process and i (as an aspiring author myself) was really moved.
overall, i clearly made a lot of notes for this collection as you can clearly see, which is to say, i think that this collection was a brilliant work by the author. i sincerely hope to pick up more of her books soon. many thanks for the review copy!
andolan portryaed the nuances of community, religion, and culture so well. it spoke the truths about the barriers amidst the assamese cosmopolitan and it stands true even in contemporary times. i thought i knew my ma was another story beautifully told while exploring the character's own life. she juxtaposes it with the life her mother once lived. it really makes us understand that we do not really know our mothers - and we will never know them as the girls they once were.
in sin and retribution, we see a different side to the assam andolan - the more violent one - and and idea of how it may have come about. in i don't love sam, the author adds a romantic angle to the differences brought on my separate ethnic identities among the people. colours is a story set in the geographical space of the kalguri tea estate in barbari, a reoccuring space in the author's stories. the next story named this is how we lived gave me goosebumps. it showed a very dark side of the government's intervention in the insurgency scenario in the northeast, and the price that women have to payh in exchange for the whole community's safety.
write romola was very powerful and raw adn made me feel so many things - one of which admittedly, feeling angry at the entire male section of our society. in the sponymous story, the women who would not die, we saw the author beautifully mixing the assamese stories and folktales that we grew up with, with the aftermath of the 2003 government operation on insurgency.
body, bones and all had a beautiful and poetic storytelling. beloved of flowers was another beautiful story that brings together folktales, dark family secrets adn the burden of power and priviledge. lastly, in the story never got written, we see a young mother coping with life and the challenges thrown at her, coupled with her responsibilities as a mother, and that of a writer. it also explored a lot of the writing process and i (as an aspiring author myself) was really moved.
overall, i clearly made a lot of notes for this collection as you can clearly see, which is to say, i think that this collection was a brilliant work by the author. i sincerely hope to pick up more of her books soon. many thanks for the review copy!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews