Geetanjali Shree Libri

An eighty-year-old woman slips into a deep depression at the death of her husband, then resurfaces to gain a new lease on life. Her determination to fly in the face of convention - including striking up a friendship with a hijra person - confuses her bohemian daughter, who is used to thinking of herself as the more 'modern' of the two. At the older woman's insistence they travel back to Pakistan, simultaneously confronting the unresolved trauma of her teenage experiences of Partition, and re-evaluating what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman, a feminist. Rather than respond to tragedy with seriousness, Geetanjali Shree's playful tone and exuberant wordplay results in a book that is engaging, funny, and utterly original, at the same time as being an urgent and timely protest against the destructive impact of borders and boundaries, whether between religions, countries, or genders.

Geetanjali Shrees Erzählungen handeln von Familien- und Beziehungsstrukturen, von sozialen und religiösen Konflikten ebenso wie vom Übergang aus der Tradition in die Moderne. Dabei erzeugt die Schriftstellerin Stimmungen, in denen sich Gefühle, Phantasien und Erinnerungen entwickeln können. Mit großer Präzision gelingen ihr so eindringliche Geschichten über die Vielschichtigkeit menschlichen Verhaltens. Diese Anthologie versammelt fünf Erzählungen einer der bedeutendsten Autorinnen der Hindi-Gegenwartsliteratur.