Sissoo

by Shashank Gupta

Sissoo Dalber, the misunderstood middle-aged orphan of Didoli, is wealthy and perhaps picks pockets. He collects rent with merciless efficiency, spends his afternoons staring across the lake, wears out a pair of white canvas shoes every week, and lives by one inherited sadness is stupid. Then strangers begin entering his carefully ordered life. A woman who is not quite what she seems. A fiercely intelligent girl on crutches. An abandoned old hag addicted to blue. A battered grinning donkey. Much against his distaste for attachments, he finds himself surrounded by something dangerously close to a family. But another struggle is gathering. And when the powerless are threatened, Sissoo must decide whether a man can remain merely an observer once another person’s sorrow has become his own.

400 pages, Paperback

Published January 6, 2026