Sand and Other Stories (Literature in translation)

Written with the deepest empathy for women trapped by an almost absolute lack of resources - financial, intellectual, emotional - these stories by Ashokamitran have all the identifiable characteristics of his writing - irony, interiority, sensitivity. The narrative in all three novellas - Sand, Malati, Those Two - moves in a series of short scenes, building tension with a relentless layering of detail. The exploitation of the women (Sarojini, her mother, Malati, Dhanam, Vaala), and their daily struggle against it lies exposed in all its terrifying ordinariness.