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A delicate thread connects these powerful short stories. The author adds a forward note to describe events that originated in 1947, when “the decline of the British Empire on the Indian subcontinent led to the formation of two new sovereign states: India and Pakistan.” The physical and religious boundaries resulted in mass movement between the two nations, where displacement, brutality and murder became the horrendous reality. Through each of the stories, which span decades and continents, the horrors of partition are vividly examined through the eyes of the displaced: the former servants of the British colonists; the women who are forced to become sex workers to stay alive; the mother who believes her child would be better dead than living in fear; the shamed English man who lusts after his male subordinate. Raw, intense and mind-blowing; each sentence is soaked with the blood, sweat and tears of its characters. This collection is one of the most sublime and under-rated examples of literary fiction I have ever encountered. If you buy only one book this year, make it this one.
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