SynopsisThe twenty-five stories in The Greatest Hindi Stories Ever Told represent the finest short fiction in Hindi literature. Selected and translated by editor, writer, and translator Poonam Saxena, and ranging from early literary masters of the form such as Premchand, Chandradhar Sharma Guleri, BhishamSahni, HarishankarParsai, Mannu Bhandari, and Shivani to contemporary greats such as AsgharWajahat, Uday Prakash, Sara Rai, and others, the collection has stories of darkness, hope, triumph, anger, and irony.
In Premchand’s ‘The Thakur’s Well’, ‘low-caste’ Gangi struggles to find drinking water for her ill husband; in ‘The Times Have Changed’ by Krishna Sobti, the matriarch Shahni bids a heart-breaking farewell to her village during Partition; Krishna BaldevVaid’s ‘Escape’ is a telling story about women’s yearning for freedom; Yashpal’s ‘Phoolo’s Kurta’ is a sharp commentary on child marriage and notions of female modesty; in BhishamSahni’s ‘A Feast for the Boss’ and Usha Priyamvada’s ‘The Homecoming’, ageing parents find themselves tragically out of sync with their family; Amarkant’s ‘City of Death’ looks at the fragile thread that holds together communal peace; PhanishwarnathRenu’s ‘The Third Vow’ features the lovable bullock-cart driver Hiraman; Bhagwaticharan Varma’s ‘Atonement’ and HarishankarParsai’s ‘The Soul of Bholaram’ are scathing satires; and ‘Tirich’ by contemporary writer Uday Prakash is a surreal tale—these and other stories in the collection are compelling, evocative, and showcase an unforgettable range of brilliant styles, forms, and themes.
Chandradhar Sharma Guleri
Premchand
Bhagwaticharan Verma
Yashpal
Agyeya
BhishamSahni
PhanishwarnathRenu
HarishankarParsai
Amarkant
Krishna Sobti
Krishna BaldevVaid
Rajendra Yadav
Mohan Rakesh
Kamleshwar
Usha Priyamvada
Mannu Bhandari
Kamtanath
Shivani
Doodhnath Singh
Omprakash Valmiki
Shaani
Shekhar Joshi
AsgharWajahat
Uday Prakash
Sara Rai
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Binding: Hardback
About the author
POONAM SAXENA is a journalist with Hindustan Times, where she is the editor of the Sunday magazine. She did her BA and MA in history from St. Stephen's College, Delhi, and went on to do an MPhil from Delhi University. She has been a journalist for almost twenty years, first as a freelancer and then as features editor with newspapers such as the Asian Age. She wrote a popular TV review column in the Hindustan Times called 'Small Screen' for almost ten years. She recently translated Gunahon ka Devta, acclaimed Hindi writer Dharamvir Bharati's iconic 1949 novel into English (Chander & Sudha, Penguin Viking); the translation has received glowing reviews.
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