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Shanti
Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles.
Who was she? Where was she going? Why did she return?
It is 1945, and twenty-year-old Shiv, grieving his identical twin brother, retreats to a small town in Uttar Pradesh. He is preparing to jump onto the train tracks when he is stopped by the sight of a woman.
Shanti's husband is a fighter pilot missing in Burma. For the past three years she has travelled the country in search of him. In every military hospital she visits she hears a new story, and every time she passes through Leharia she tells one to Shiv. Through stories within stories Chandra tells a spiralling tale of loss, and of two wounded people becoming something new.
Borrowing a structure from the Mahabharata, Vikram Chandra tells a spiralling story of loss, and of two wounded people becoming something new.
Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.
Who was she? Where was she going? Why did she return?
It is 1945, and twenty-year-old Shiv, grieving his identical twin brother, retreats to a small town in Uttar Pradesh. He is preparing to jump onto the train tracks when he is stopped by the sight of a woman.
Shanti's husband is a fighter pilot missing in Burma. For the past three years she has travelled the country in search of him. In every military hospital she visits she hears a new story, and every time she passes through Leharia she tells one to Shiv. Through stories within stories Chandra tells a spiralling tale of loss, and of two wounded people becoming something new.
Borrowing a structure from the Mahabharata, Vikram Chandra tells a spiralling story of loss, and of two wounded people becoming something new.
Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.
80 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
10 people are currently reading
263 people want to read
About the author
Vikram Chandra
18 books470 followersVikram Chandra was born in New Delhi.
He completed most of his secondary education at Mayo College, a boarding school in Ajmer, Rajasthan. After a short stay at St. Xavier's College in Mumbai, Vikram came to the United States as an undergraduate student.
In 1984, he graduated from Pomona College (in Claremont, near Los Angeles) with a magna cum laude BA in English, with a concentration in creative writing.
He then attended the Film School at Columbia University in New York. In the Columbia library, by chance, he happened upon the autobiography of Colonel James "Sikander" Skinner, a legendary nineteenth century soldier, born of an Indian mother and a British father. This book was to become the inspiration for Vikram's novel, Red Earth and Pouring Rain. He left film school halfway to begin work on the novel.
Red Earth and Pouring Rain was written over several years at the writing programs at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Houston. Vikram worked with John Barth at Johns Hopkins and with Donald Barthelme at the University of Houston; he obtained an MA at Johns Hopkins and an MFA at the University of Houston.
While writing Red Earth and Pouring Rain, Vikram taught literature and writing, and also worked independently as a computer programmer and software and hardware consultant. His clients included oil companies, non-profit organizations, and the Houston Zoo.
Red Earth and Pouring Rain was published in 1995 by Penguin/India in India; by Faber and Faber in the UK; and by Little, Brown in the United States. The book was received with outstanding critical acclaim. It won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book and the David Higham Prize for Fiction.
A collection of short stories, Love and Longing in Bombay, was published in 1997 by Penguin/India in India; by Faber and Faber in the UK; and by Little, Brown in the United States. Love and Longing in Bombay won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book (Eurasia region); was short-listed for the Guardian Fiction Prize; and was included in "Notable Books of 1997" by the New York Times Book Review, in "Best Books of the Year" by the Independent (London), in "Best Books of the Year" by the Guardian (London), and in "The Ten Best Books of 1997" by Outlook magazine (New Delhi). Two of these stories have been formerly published in the Paris Review and The New Yorker. The story "Dharma" was awarded the Discovery Prize by the Paris Review, and was included in Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (St. Martin's Press, 1998).
A novel, Sacred Games, was published in 2006 by Penguin/India in India; and by Faber and Faber in the UK. It will be published in January 2007 in the United States by HarperCollins.
In June 1997, Vikram was featured in the New Yorker photograph of "India's leading novelists." His work has been translated into eleven languages.
He has co-written Mission Kashmir, an Indian feature film starring Sanjay Dutt, Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta, and Jackie Shroff, that was released internationally in late October, 2000.
Vikram's mother, Kamna Chandra, is the writer of several Hindi films including Prem Rog and 1942: A Love Story; she has also written plays for All India Radio and Doordarshan. His sister, Tanuja Chandra, is a director and screenwriter, who has directed several films including Sur and Sangharsh. His other sister Anupama Chopra is a film critic and senior correspondent for India Today; she has written Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, a BFI book about the hugely popular 1995 hit. Her first book, Sholay: The Making of a Classic, won the Swarn Kamal, a national award for the best Indian book on cinema in 1995. Vikram's father, Navin Chandra, is a retired executive.
Vikram Chandra currently divides his time between Mumbai and Berkeley, California, where he teaches creative writing at the University of California. He lives with his wife Melanie Abrams, who is also a novelist.
He completed most of his secondary education at Mayo College, a boarding school in Ajmer, Rajasthan. After a short stay at St. Xavier's College in Mumbai, Vikram came to the United States as an undergraduate student.
In 1984, he graduated from Pomona College (in Claremont, near Los Angeles) with a magna cum laude BA in English, with a concentration in creative writing.
He then attended the Film School at Columbia University in New York. In the Columbia library, by chance, he happened upon the autobiography of Colonel James "Sikander" Skinner, a legendary nineteenth century soldier, born of an Indian mother and a British father. This book was to become the inspiration for Vikram's novel, Red Earth and Pouring Rain. He left film school halfway to begin work on the novel.
Red Earth and Pouring Rain was written over several years at the writing programs at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Houston. Vikram worked with John Barth at Johns Hopkins and with Donald Barthelme at the University of Houston; he obtained an MA at Johns Hopkins and an MFA at the University of Houston.
While writing Red Earth and Pouring Rain, Vikram taught literature and writing, and also worked independently as a computer programmer and software and hardware consultant. His clients included oil companies, non-profit organizations, and the Houston Zoo.
Red Earth and Pouring Rain was published in 1995 by Penguin/India in India; by Faber and Faber in the UK; and by Little, Brown in the United States. The book was received with outstanding critical acclaim. It won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book and the David Higham Prize for Fiction.
A collection of short stories, Love and Longing in Bombay, was published in 1997 by Penguin/India in India; by Faber and Faber in the UK; and by Little, Brown in the United States. Love and Longing in Bombay won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book (Eurasia region); was short-listed for the Guardian Fiction Prize; and was included in "Notable Books of 1997" by the New York Times Book Review, in "Best Books of the Year" by the Independent (London), in "Best Books of the Year" by the Guardian (London), and in "The Ten Best Books of 1997" by Outlook magazine (New Delhi). Two of these stories have been formerly published in the Paris Review and The New Yorker. The story "Dharma" was awarded the Discovery Prize by the Paris Review, and was included in Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (St. Martin's Press, 1998).
A novel, Sacred Games, was published in 2006 by Penguin/India in India; and by Faber and Faber in the UK. It will be published in January 2007 in the United States by HarperCollins.
In June 1997, Vikram was featured in the New Yorker photograph of "India's leading novelists." His work has been translated into eleven languages.
He has co-written Mission Kashmir, an Indian feature film starring Sanjay Dutt, Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta, and Jackie Shroff, that was released internationally in late October, 2000.
Vikram's mother, Kamna Chandra, is the writer of several Hindi films including Prem Rog and 1942: A Love Story; she has also written plays for All India Radio and Doordarshan. His sister, Tanuja Chandra, is a director and screenwriter, who has directed several films including Sur and Sangharsh. His other sister Anupama Chopra is a film critic and senior correspondent for India Today; she has written Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, a BFI book about the hugely popular 1995 hit. Her first book, Sholay: The Making of a Classic, won the Swarn Kamal, a national award for the best Indian book on cinema in 1995. Vikram's father, Navin Chandra, is a retired executive.
Vikram Chandra currently divides his time between Mumbai and Berkeley, California, where he teaches creative writing at the University of California. He lives with his wife Melanie Abrams, who is also a novelist.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
May 28, 2023
Another of the Faber 90 short fiction stories - this was a rather intriguing story it almost read like a fable or a cautionary tale (not that there is a caution needed) in that it was a tale within a tale.
As always I try and steer clear of spoilers I do feel this is one of those stories where one generation is telling another something of great importance while at the same time presenting it in a manner that the reader does not realise it is actually aimed at them.
It is hard to encapsulate a story of short length without giving something away but what I would say is that the "blurb" does not really give it a true sense - yes it does cover what happens but there is a totally different narrative here too that I think is far more interesting if only fleetingly touched upon.
As always I try and steer clear of spoilers I do feel this is one of those stories where one generation is telling another something of great importance while at the same time presenting it in a manner that the reader does not realise it is actually aimed at them.
It is hard to encapsulate a story of short length without giving something away but what I would say is that the "blurb" does not really give it a true sense - yes it does cover what happens but there is a totally different narrative here too that I think is far more interesting if only fleetingly touched upon.
June 22, 2020
yeah this FUCKS!
ok maybe i just love anthologies and romance and the romance in this is kinda baseless but weirdly i think that works??
the anecdotes though... phew
ok maybe i just love anthologies and romance and the romance in this is kinda baseless but weirdly i think that works??
the anecdotes though... phew
May 18, 2020
Shanti by Vikram Chandra is a series of stories within a story. Chandra makes the most of the brevity of this story, managing to craft an intricate narrative of recounted tales merging with the present. This is a story of loss, and of healing. I read this book in one sitting, partly because it it's so short, but mostly because I was so captivated by Chandra's use of language. This book seemed to be much larger than it is, spiralling off seamlessly into the past while still offering character development in the present. Definitely recommend this to any fans of short stories!
December 28, 2025
The prose is at its best in the affectionate scenes between Shiv and Shanti towards the very end. This makes it all the more disappointing that they are not the primary focus of the novella; instead, the author felt the need to introduce narrative mechanisms to make a larger point about storytelling.
Which in itself isn't a bad thing, certainly ambitious to try to pull off a story-within-a-story-within-a-story within the length of a novella, but the stories that occur three layers down range from decent at their best to very trite depictions of war at their worst.
Overall, there are enough passages of competent writing here that I wouldn't mind reading more of his work in the future, provided it plays closer to his strengths, but this novella is a miss for me.
Which in itself isn't a bad thing, certainly ambitious to try to pull off a story-within-a-story-within-a-story within the length of a novella, but the stories that occur three layers down range from decent at their best to very trite depictions of war at their worst.
Overall, there are enough passages of competent writing here that I wouldn't mind reading more of his work in the future, provided it plays closer to his strengths, but this novella is a miss for me.
Read
March 14, 2024the first print book i have finished since my concussion! helped that it's a short story in the shape of a small book, and i still spread out my reading over months. maybe i would have understood it more if i had read it faster.
August 24, 2025
Chandra's 'Shanti' is an illusive, dreamlike tale within a tale that begins in Uttar Pradesh (Northern India). Chandra's writing style is alluring and imbued with imaginative similes. The storyline is unclear without feeling directionless or linear. Despite how short the book was, I felt moved and impacted by the beauty and often haunting feelings I was left with from the tales. I especially loved the tale about Janamohini and the later one about Amma. The surreality was moving and I felt very touched by Chandra's writing, which I look forward to exploring more. Personally, I felt it to be an exploration of grief, new beginnings, memory and stories.
'And she begun to walk backwards . They tried to stop her, but she walked backwards, faster and faster. She began to run backwards. Her husband wept, and she said, can't you see? If I go fast enough, back and back, I will leap into tomorrow. And her husband wept'
'And she begun to walk backwards . They tried to stop her, but she walked backwards, faster and faster. She began to run backwards. Her husband wept, and she said, can't you see? If I go fast enough, back and back, I will leap into tomorrow. And her husband wept'
August 4, 2020
This short story was first published in Love and Longing in Bombay in 1997. I read the standalone Faber Stories edition published in 2019 as part of reading the whole Faber Stories series.
This is a story of two people experiencing profound loss: Shiv, whose is grieving his identical twin brother, and Shanti, whose fighter pilot husband is missing. Through a series of stories within stories, the two grow closer.
This short story was just not for me. I found it frustrating and predictable all at once, and while others have praised the language, it just did nothing for me. This will always be the nature of reading a series like Faber Stories: no-one will enjoy everything in the series. Obviously, others have really loved this, so don’t let the fact that I was unmoved put you off reading it.
This is a story of two people experiencing profound loss: Shiv, whose is grieving his identical twin brother, and Shanti, whose fighter pilot husband is missing. Through a series of stories within stories, the two grow closer.
This short story was just not for me. I found it frustrating and predictable all at once, and while others have praised the language, it just did nothing for me. This will always be the nature of reading a series like Faber Stories: no-one will enjoy everything in the series. Obviously, others have really loved this, so don’t let the fact that I was unmoved put you off reading it.
October 8, 2021
RA
Not a single story, but layers of several rich narratives. Sometimes allegorical and surreal. Revolving about the power of steam, after bureaucracy perhaps the heaviest boot print of British rule. It reminded me of Joseph Conrad in the way in which the narrator themselves is being told the unfolding tale, but with a flavour of R K Narayan in its sub-continent exposition. I looked up as many of the Indian words as I could; while lending cultural realism it made it a little harder for me to read, more my failing than the author's of course. A love story told by a man to a man, about an elusive woman. It gets said too much, but this was poetic prose.
Not a single story, but layers of several rich narratives. Sometimes allegorical and surreal. Revolving about the power of steam, after bureaucracy perhaps the heaviest boot print of British rule. It reminded me of Joseph Conrad in the way in which the narrator themselves is being told the unfolding tale, but with a flavour of R K Narayan in its sub-continent exposition. I looked up as many of the Indian words as I could; while lending cultural realism it made it a little harder for me to read, more my failing than the author's of course. A love story told by a man to a man, about an elusive woman. It gets said too much, but this was poetic prose.
September 28, 2020
A reading pleasure though I will not pretend that I understood the relevance of the stories within stories. Were they a clever way of making a short story a vehicle for a number of shorter stories or was there something more profound in Shanti's choices? Blue eyes, Hitler, experiments, twins. If this was the connection in her first story it left the reader to make the leap that this was about Shiv's dead twin brother. I finished feeling a little confused but not disappointed, for the writing was well crafted.
July 16, 2021
Shanti, in staying true to its name, offers a serene narration of the seemingly unrelated lives of two individuals in a small town in India. An enjoyable read that offers a renewed perspective of love and loss, Chandra intertwines multiple mini anecdotes (whose relevance/ learnings I wish I understood - please let me know if you do), while still ensuring ample time is dedicated to exploring the multidimensionality of Shiv and the eponymous Shanti, whose storyline readers, and the protagonist himself, can't help but empathise with.
July 7, 2022
This book had a very dream-like and surreal feel to it. I enjoyed the writing very much; although the stories are so strange, they were easy to imagine. Nice bit of reading for some long and tiring train journeys the last couple of days. This story did leave me slightly confused, but I will accept this as this goes hand in hand with the dream-like atmosphere already created.
September 30, 2023
this was such an interesting read, stories within a story.
i found this book somewhat confusing but ultimately enjoyed its unusual format, it spiralled around and made you work a little.
without potentially spoiling anything there’s nothing i can say about the plot.
for such a finite number of pages (71) this story packs in a lot of events and emotional elements.
i found this book somewhat confusing but ultimately enjoyed its unusual format, it spiralled around and made you work a little.
without potentially spoiling anything there’s nothing i can say about the plot.
for such a finite number of pages (71) this story packs in a lot of events and emotional elements.
July 16, 2022
Borrowed from Sarushka while in Italia. I remember enjoying it at 4am on the boat trip to the airport, but my brain was a little fuzzy so not entirely certain about anything. Nonetheless, good vibes and I enjoyed the ending (I think?)
April 22, 2023
A story about a story about two people who tell each other stories, it's slightly confusing, requires knowledge of some context and I'm not really sure what the message was at the end of it to be honest!
March 12, 2024
Excellent short story, with other short stories embedded in it, centred around a despondent young man’s drawing to a woman who visits his town regularly by train, his perusing her in the waiting room of the station, falling in love and eventually marriage.
April 14, 2024
there was a sort of surreal, dream-like air surrounding the story. the layers of stories within a story, although a little hard to keep track of, is captivating. i didn't think i would particularly enjoy this but i most definitely loved it.
February 5, 2025
enjoyable, mildly thought provoking but leaves you with an entirely warm and whole feeling. I enjoyed it a lot. I’d read it again many times before not enjoying it. Like a bite size breath of freshness
February 16, 2020
V lovely, peaceful writing
July 22, 2020
Stories for fireplaces
I always want more, a new story / novel every 6 months. Let my mind travel whilst my body rests.
I always want more, a new story / novel every 6 months. Let my mind travel whilst my body rests.
September 6, 2021
Some beautiful vignettes of India; locomotion and love; some charming anecdotes and fables within the short story itself. Just didn’t really engage me all that much despite its short length.
January 28, 2022
Cute read! Honestly not much to say - a random bookshop pick up, typical Faber Story
April 5, 2022
It was so beautiful. Although I couldn’t understand some of the allegories for my lack of knowledge in Indian history, I still enjoyed the read immensely.
July 22, 2022
dreamlike
August 10, 2022
unique, however, the outermost story was weak
November 9, 2022
I love Vikram Chandra's writing. This is a gorgeous, dream-like love story that coils sinuously around the various stories Shanti chooses to share with Shiv as they cross paths in the shadow of war.
December 30, 2022
I hated this book so much
November 27, 2023
felt like reading a folktale. very sweet and warm
January 10, 2025
Dreamy, compelling, and beautifully written.
January 17, 2025
This was surprisingly layered for such a short story. It was pretty, and managed to cover a lot of ground in a little space.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews