The Complete Stories

by Anita Desai

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Indian Literature, Ebooks, India, Literature

448 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2018

About the author

Anita Desai was born in 1937. Her published works include adult novels, children's books and short stories. She is a member of the Advisory Board for English of the National Academy of Letters in Delhi and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in London. Anita Mazumdar Desai is an Indian novelist and Emeritus John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been shortlisted for the Booker prize three times. Her daughter, the author Kiran Desai, is the winner of the 2006 Booker prize.

Reviews

[Raul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of short stories, I especially liked the first half, but all of them were fantastic. The prose here was stunning, some of the most stunning prose I've ever read. The stories stretch from Bombay to Canada; from a child's aching discovery that he could be forgotten to the value of art to an artist in desperate conditions to earn, a broad range of themes tackled and executed well.

However, I read the short stories only. The three novellas that are collected here are collected elsewhere together too, and I hope to read them sometime this year.

[Olga Lawrence-Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am short story fan because I like to read more than one book at a time, so one that I can dip in an out of is perfect. Anita Desai's short stories are for me a perfect encapsulation of peoples' lives with all their strange and ordinary features. There was not one story I didn't enjoy the descriptions are wonderful.

[Trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pigeons at Daybreak (9p)
A short story about a married Indian couple, Mr & Mrs Basu, where the wife Otima cares for her sick husband 'Mr Basu'. Themes of hostility and bitterness from his point of view with the wife's clear exhaustion is captured brilliantly in realistic detail. The title of the story is unexpectantly used symbolically at the end. Another fantastic story written with great detail and depth in just nine pages.

Games at Twilight (10p)
The first in this short story collection, Games in Twilight, is an intriguing story about child's play, told from the viewpoint of the children and attempts to expose the anguish of a child when faced with rejection and exclusion by his peers. It is very well-written and describes the atmosphere and surroundings so well, the reader feels immersed into the scene.

Studies in the Park (11p)
This story is about a boy called Suno who faces the pressures of studying inflicted by family and society in general. Suno is frustrated of no-where 'quiet' to study and ends up stumbling into the local park where he finds some solace. One day he witnesses something happening in the park, which changes his outlook forever. Another well-written, powerful story about human emotion.

[Elizabeth Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anita Desai is an incredible writer and this diverse collection of stories is short story writing at its best. My favourite story was Translator Translated about a woman who is so buoyed by the power she feels she wields as a translator that she starts trying to improve on the writer’s work. All of Desai’s stories evoked an empathy with the characters, even in the shortest space of time. A long collection, but one to savour.

[Moushine Zahr · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first book I've read from Indian author Anita Desai. The book is composed of about 2 dozens short stories written by the author throughout her long carreer. The stories are contemporary in themes and set during the second half of the 20th century. Most of them are set in India, but there are a couple one set outside of India and even one set in Mexico with no link to India and/ Indians. Some are interesting and others not. I was not captivated by one specific story. The stories are not related to each other by a common theme/subject. As always, shorts stories are difficult for me to have a good sense of the author and its works.

[Grebbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As you may expect from a collection of 24 short stories, some hit the mark and some didn’t. Without meaning to state the obvious, the longer stories held more interest for me as they had time to develop. Of one thing there can be no doubt, Desai is a great writer. First published 2017.

[Dayi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such power!

[Matt Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection is an excellent introduction to the range of quiet power Anita Desai brings to her storytelling.

[Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each story pulls you into its own world without there being any overlap. Each character is strong and complicated and invites you into a story about life as it actually is.

[Michael Martin]

Wonderful stories.