The Impermanence of
Lies: Stories of Jyotirmoyee Devi
Introduction by Mahasweta
Devi
Translated from the Bengali by a group of translators
demy octavo pb 143pp Jan 1998 ISBN 81-85604-21-5 Rs 130
This first-ever collection of Jyotirmoyee Devi’s short stories
in an English translation from the original Bengali spans forty years of the
author’s career. Her interests ranged from the feudal world of the princely
state of Jaipur, to East Bengal at the time of Partition, to the urban world of
our cities. The stories reflect her concern with many issues painfully relevant
even today: how traditional cultures try to cope with change and how
individuals navigate their way between the old and the new, the causes of
female infanticide, women caught in the crossfire of communalism and the
commodification of women in various ways. Humane yet unsentimental, sometimes
quite stark, the author is extraordinarily modern in tone and style. Her vision
shows us a host of characters, often caught between the past and the future, the
home and the world outside.
Jyotirmoyee Devi (1894-1988)
was born into a distinguished Bengali family of Jaipur. She was awarded the
Rabindra Puraskar in 1973.
Published By:Stree
Published By:Stree
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