Book Details
• Publisher: Sahitya Akademi
• Author: Shantinath K. Desai
• Language: English
• Pages: 310
• Edition: 2016
• Cover: Paperback
• ISBN: 9788126046935
• Dimensions: 21.5 cm x 14 cm (8.50 x 5.50 inches)
• Weight: 420 gm

About the Book
This volume presents a representative collection of twenty-one short stories that together offer a cross-section of contemporary Indian fiction. Twenty of the stories are translated from twenty different Indian languages, while one story is an original piece of creative writing in English. Selected by the Sahitya Akademi’s Advisory Boards of various languages, the anthology reflects the diversity and richness of Indian literary traditions.

The stories provide engaging glimpses into Indian life with its striking contrasts between the simple and the sophisticated, the traditional and the modern. The collection demonstrates the unity of Indian literature despite its linguistic diversity, showing how varied cultural expressions share common themes, sensibilities, and human concerns. Through different narrative voices and styles, the anthology captures social change, cultural tensions, and the complexities of everyday life.

The preface highlights the concept of a pan-Indian cultural ethos, where multiple literary traditions coexist within a shared framework. Several stories explore recurring themes such as the predicament of women in a rapidly modernising society, social transformation, and emotional conflicts within changing cultural contexts. As the fourth volume in Sahitya Akademi’s series of representative anthologies of contemporary Indian short stories in English, this book serves as an important introduction to modern Indian literature across languages.