A Day in the Life

Quixotic nonconformists in small towns and young newly-weds trying to keep up with the times; a forlorn retiree helpless in the face of contemporary anger and a middle-class woman's bond with her maid. Fourteen well-crafted stories give us a sense of the daily life of a wide cast of characters. Hasan's protagonists are, as always, inward-looking, and whimsical and vulnerable outliers. Where is their place in the new order, where have they come from and where are they going?

Quietly devastating, subtly subversive and wonderfully wry, Hasan is a home-grown talent whose stories are increasingly the good address for authentic Indian fiction.

"A special mix of storytelling and sly memoir. If literature’s task is to describe what it means to be alive, Anjum Hasan is particularly good at capturing life during times of change. Whether writing about present-day Bangalore or Benares in an earlier century, Stockholm or Shillong, she is always an alert and thoughtful observer. And every few lines, there is a word or turn of phrase that makes the heart thud." — Amitava Kumar