Beschrijving

Multi-layered, subtle, wonderful short stories from the inimitable Booker-prize winning author, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

‘A masterclass in storytelling and writing beautiful, luminous prose’ Literary Review

An Indian poetess exerts an artistic and sexual dominion over her English translator; a middle-aged man is found dead in mysterious circumstances in a shabby Indian guesthouse, leaving an assortment of women to reassemble the pieces of his secret life; a young English girl with a beautiful voice infiltrates Fifth Avenue theatrical royalty; and a beautiful Hollywood film star exacts a clever, protracted revenge on her nemesis.

Speaking of mortality and family rivalry, of power, of love and the loss of innocence, this is a delicious assortment of fairytales and parables.

‘A hugely enjoyable collection, written with sly humour’ Peter Parker, Sunday Times

‘These stories show of her extraordinary range [and] also have a wistful underlying flavour of the Brothers Grimm’ The Times

‘Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is in a category of her own’ Patrick French, Financial Times

Taking us from a sweltering Indian rooftop at night to the marble halls of an ageing Bollywood star’s palace, this is a new collection of short stories from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.

A wedding is planned between two innocents at a crumbling mansion of a grand Hudson Valley estate, while among the white-socked convent girls of post-colonial New Delhi a mixed-race couple contemplate their son’s alienation and the failure of hope. A young English girl infiltrates Fifth Avenue theatrical royalty and a lovely Broadway starlet exacts a clever, protracted revenge against her nemesis.

Speaking of mortality and family rivalry, of the transfer of power from old to young, of love and the loss of innocence, this is a delicious assortment of fairytales and parables.