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Passages: 24 Modern Indian Stories
24 stories from today's best indian authors
India's literary tradition has found a growing audience around the world. Many talented writers have arrived on the scene, each illuminating different parts of the Indian experience, from years of colonial rule to the unique challenges of life in the West.
This important anthology includes short stories and novel excerpts from Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desai, Rohinton Mistry, Jhumpa Lahiri, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Anita Desai, Bharati Mukherjee, R. K. Narayan, and sixteen more.
India's literary tradition has found a growing audience around the world. Many talented writers have arrived on the scene, each illuminating different parts of the Indian experience, from years of colonial rule to the unique challenges of life in the West.
This important anthology includes short stories and novel excerpts from Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desai, Rohinton Mistry, Jhumpa Lahiri, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Anita Desai, Bharati Mukherjee, R. K. Narayan, and sixteen more.
- GenresShort Stories
368 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 24, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 8, 2016
**Read for my Around the World in 80 Books Challenge**
A wonderful collection of a wide variety of stories. As the editors of this collection say in their introduction, they set out to give a taste of the diversity of India and the richness of its literary culture. I say: mission accomplished. The collection includes authors well-known to a non-Indian audience, such as Salmon Rusdie and Jhumpa Lahiri, as well as lesser known (but just as talented) authors. The stories show a variety of "Indian" experiences: they cover several different social classes, and give a taste of the diversity of cultures, religions and casts that are present in modern day India, as well as the experiences of immigrants and emigrants.
Two stories I liked best:
"The Assignment" by Saadat Hasan Manto (it haunts you long after you've finished reading this short masterpiece)
"A horse and two goats" by R. K. Narayan (humorous and touching)
A wonderful collection of a wide variety of stories. As the editors of this collection say in their introduction, they set out to give a taste of the diversity of India and the richness of its literary culture. I say: mission accomplished. The collection includes authors well-known to a non-Indian audience, such as Salmon Rusdie and Jhumpa Lahiri, as well as lesser known (but just as talented) authors. The stories show a variety of "Indian" experiences: they cover several different social classes, and give a taste of the diversity of cultures, religions and casts that are present in modern day India, as well as the experiences of immigrants and emigrants.
Two stories I liked best:
"The Assignment" by Saadat Hasan Manto (it haunts you long after you've finished reading this short masterpiece)
"A horse and two goats" by R. K. Narayan (humorous and touching)
August 21, 2016
Three stars because my ambivalence about this book is almost entirely personal: I don't generally care for fictional short stories. I like to be surrounded and immersed and surrender myself to an epic, to get to know the characters intricately, to always be turning the page to discover what happens next. But Ruskin Bond was recommended to me, and this was the best my library could do. His contribution to this collection is nice: well written using very evocative language to create an image of a house at an exact moment in the past. But it's a memory of a static thing, not a story, so I feel like I haven't really tasted the true Ruskin Bond. By favorite entry was Dharma by Vikran Chandra because it was a complete story.
May 10, 2015
Great introduction to some wonderful authors; a lot of different topics and points of view.
April 2, 2023
Great introduction to some amazing authors!
November 17, 2010
Enjoyable collection of short stories. For example, the last is about a little boy pictured in an ad ("Make this child smile again") as he journeys to America to meet his benefactors.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews