A Clutch of Indian Masterpieces At Rs.347

‘The mother of all compilations arrives in the form of an exhaustive book of short stories, A Clutch of Indian Masterpieces. A book doesn’t get grander than this…All in all, a carefully put-together, precious collection of short stories that begs to be read over and over again. And with every reading, like all great things, the stories are capable of throwing up fresh new interpretations.’—New Indian Express

‘The handsome, inky blue tome is indeed an extraordinary collection of masterpieces, hewn from (the) stories that make up the great Ganga of Indian writing…What’s best about this anthology is that though it salutes the hoary old masters of the Indian canon of Manto and Tagore (with their familiar and exquisite stories of mangoes and tongas), the book also carries the stories of many subsequent and outstanding writers…With an excellent foreword by Davidar, this is a treasure.’—Malavika Sangghvi in Mid-day

‘The publication of such an anthology is a cause to celebrate, to read and to thank our translators and our writers. And it is an occasion to thank our editor.’—India Today

‘This anthology showcases some of the very best stories in a variety of dazzling styles.’—Asian Age

‘Hands down the most beautiful book of the year – and one you must own.’—Hindustan Times/Brunch

Table of Contents

1) The Hunger of Stones – Rabindranath Tagore (Translated from the Bengali by Amitav Ghosh); 2)The Shroud – Munshi Premchand (Translated from the Hindi by Arshia Sattar); 3) A Horse and Two Goats – R.K. Narayan; 4) A Life – Buddhadeva Bose (Translated from the Bengali by Arunava Sinha); 5) Toba Tek Singh – Saadat Hasan Manto (Translated from the Urdu by Khushwant Singh); 6) The Flood – Thakazhi S. Pillai (Translated from the Malayalam by O.V. Usha); 7) The Blue Light – Vaikom Muhammad Basheer (Translated from the Malayalam by O.V. Usha); 8) The Somersault – Gopinath Mohanty (Translated from the Oriya by Sitakant Mahapatra); 9) Portrait of a Lady – Khushwant Singh; 10) Quilt 2 – Ismat Chughtai (Translated from the Hindi by Rakhshanda Jalil); 11) Stench of Kerosene – Amrita Pritam (Translated from the Punjabi by Khushwant Singh); 12) Gold from the Grave – Anna Bhau Sathe (Translated from the Marathi by Vernon Gonsalves); 13) The Man Who Saw God – D.B.G. Tilak (Translated from the Telugu by Ranga Rao); 14) Inspector Matadeen on the Moon – Harishankar Parsai (Translated from the Hindi by C.M. Naim); 15) Draupadi – Mahasweta Devi (Translated from the Bengali by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak); 16) Countless Hitlers – Vijaydan Detha (Translated from the Rajasthani by Christi A. Merrill and Kailash Kabir); 17) Mirror of Illusion – Nirmal Verma (Translated from the Hindi by Geeta Kapur); 18) Reflowering – Sundara Ramaswamy (Translated from the Tamil by S. Krishnan); 19) Mouni – U.R. Ananthamurthy (Translated from the Kannada by H. Y. Sharada Prasad); 20) Old Cypress – Nisha da Cunha; 21) The Blue Umbrella – Ruskin Bond 3; 22) Crossing the Ravi – Gulzar ( Translated from the Urdu by Rakhshanda Jalil; 23) Games at Twilight – Anita Desai; 24) A Revolt of the Gods – Vilas Sarang (Translated from the Marathi by the author); 25) In a Forest, a Deer – Ambai (Translated from the Tamil by Lakshmi Holmstrom); 26) Bhaskara Pattelar and My Life – Paul Zacharia (Translated from the Malayalam by Gita Krishnankutty); 27) Tar Arrives – Devanoora Mahadeva (Translated from the Kannada by A.K. Ramanujan and Manu Shetty); 28) Last in First Out – Irwin Allan Sealy); 29) The Elephant and the Tragopan – Vikram Seth; 30) Feast – Manjula Padmanabhan; 31) Nursing God’s Countries – Githa Hariharan; 32) Proposed for Condemnation – Cyrus Mistry; 33) Trying to Discover India – Shashi Tharoor; 34) Desolation – Upamanyu Chatterjee; 35) Kama – Vikram Chandra; 36) Wild Things – Anjum Hasan; 37) Stolen – Amrita Narayan; 38) The Gravestone – Shahnaz Bashir; 39) Elephant at Sea – Kanishk Tharoor