Nabarun Bhattacharya Libri

Set against the backdrop of West Bengal, this surreal novel blends absurdist humor with political satire. The story follows Marshall Bhodi Sarkar, a military figure and sorcerer, as he uncovers historical artifacts while searching for oil. Teaming up with the eccentric Flaperoos-men, they embark on a whimsical and improbable revolution against the Marxist-Leninist government. The narrative intertwines elements of magic realism and a rich tapestry of Bengali history, offering a vibrant and chaotic exploration of subaltern resistance.

A collection of inventive and surprising short stories from one of India's most prominent countercultural writers. In this wildly inventive collection of Nabarun Bhattacharya's stories we meet characters such as a trigger-happy cop in an authoritarian police state, a man who holds on to a piece of rope from a deadly noose, a retired revolutionary thrilled by delusions of grandeur, and people working for a corporation that arranges lavish suicides for a price. Ranging from scathing satires of society to surreal investigations of violence and love, these stories are also a window onto the political and social climate in Bengal, tracing both pan-Indian developments like the 1975 Emergency and local ones like militant-leftist Naxalism and the decades-long Communist reign in the state. Expertly translated from the Bengali, Hawa Hawa and Other Stories is a journey through the mind of one of the most daring countercultural writers of India, one with particular resonance in these chaotic times.