March fiction: Six recently published Indian novels and short stories for a new month of reading

Tamil: The Best Stories of Our Times, edited by Perundevi

This anthology brings together 22 short stories published over the past three decades by some of the finest contemporary writers of Tamil fiction. Traversing Tamil Nadu and the Tamil diaspora, these stories capture a society’s encounter with the modern world, as its people grapple with what is irreducibly human in themselves and others. Along the way, they unravel the subtle intricacies of life, illuminating various transitions, identities and interiorities.

Basti & Durbar, Delhi-New Delhi: A City in Stories, edited by Rakhshanda Jalil

In the thirty-two stories in this collection, there is a city that pushes through in its unbearable heat and cold and a city that plays rummy and talks golf at the Gymkhana Club; a phoenix city built by emperors and imperialists, poets, labourers, traders and fixers; a city that survived the Partition and shelters its victims; and a city of lovers and dreamers, but also of thick-skinned, cynical politicians and babus.

Among the writers featured in this anthology are legends and new voices – Khushwant Singh, Bhisham Sahni, Rashid Jahan, Kamleshwar, Mohan Rakesh, Gulzar, Kartar Singh Duggal, Krishna Sobti, Keki Daruwalla, M Mukundan, Asghar Wajahat, Namita Gokhale, Uday Prakash, Navtej Sarna, Sujit Saraf, Vandana Singh, Palash…

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