The cats are mewing in panic. Strange voices are calling from the attic. Who's there??

Spanning half a life, My Father's Garden tells the story of a young doctor--the unnamed narrator--as he negotiates love and sexuality, his need for companionship, and the burdens of memory and familial expectation. The opening section, 'Lover', finds him studying medicine in Jamshedpur. At college, he discovers an all-consuming passion for Samir, a junior, who possesses his body, mind and heart. Yet, on their last morning together, when he asks Samir to kiss him goodbye, his lover tells him, 'A kiss is only for someone special.' In 'Friend', the young doctor, escaping heartbreak, finds relief in Pakur where he strikes up an unusual friendship with Bada Babu, the head clerk of the hospital where he is posted. In Bada Babu's house, they indulge a shared love for drink, delicious food and convivial company. But when government bulldozers arrive to tear down the neighbourhood, and Bada Babu's house, the young doctor uncovers a sordid tale of apathy and exploitation--and a side to his new friend that leaves him disillusioned. And in 'Father', unable, ultimately, to flee the pain, the young doctor takes refuge in his parents' home in Ghatsila. As he heals, he reflects on his father--once a vital man who had phenomenal success at work and in Adivasi politics, then an equally precipitous downfall--and wonders if his obsessive gardening has anything to do with the choices his son has made. Written with deep empathy and searing emotional intensity, and in the clear, unaffected prose that is the hallmark of Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar's style, My Father's Garden marks a major talent of Indian fiction writing at the top of his form.

Rupi birthed her eldest son squatting in the middle of a paddy field, shin-deep in mud and slush. Soon after, Gurubari, her rival in love, gave her an illness that was like the alakjari vine which engulfs the tallest, greenest trees of the forest and sucks their hearts out. Now Rupi, once the strongest woman in her village, lives out her days on a cot in the backyard, and her life dissolves into incomprehensible ruin around her. The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey is the story of the Baskeys the patriarch Somai; his alcoholic, irrepressible daughter Putki; Khorda, Putki s devout, upright husband, and their sons Sido and Doso; and Sido s wife Rupi. Equally, the novel is about Kadamdihi, the Santhal village in Jharkhand in which the Baskeys live. For it is in full view of the village that the various large and small dramas of the Baskeys s lives play out, even as the village cheers them on, finds fault with them, prays for them and, most of all, enjoys the spectacle they provide. An astonishingly assured and original debut, The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey brings to vivid life a village, its people, and the gods good and bad who influence them. Through their intersecting lives, it explores the age-old notions of good and evil and the murky ways in which the heart and the mind work.

Description The Chowtas ruled over Ullal and surrounding areas of coastal Karnataka. Many rulers in this dynasty were women, and at least two carried the name Rani Abbakka. They have gone down in history and folklore as fearsome warriors who fiercely defended their tiny kingdom, and repeatedly defeated the Portuguese. This is the story of Abbakka III. Abbakka grows up knowing she will rule over the kingdom one day-the one that was ruled by her grandmother Abbakka II and her mother Rani Tirumala Devi. Abbakka trains with all her heart in everything a queen needs to know, and never tires of hearing the tales of sea battles that her grandmother waged against the firangis. But Abbakka is also a young girl who loves adventure. She sets out on dangerous missions to track down spies on the seas. She accompanies her mother in a secret plan to outwit the Portuguese as they try to capture the kingdom's precious pepper crop. And then there is the handsome, mysterious boy from Mangalore, who she likes enormously... Steeped in the culture and history of the region, The Teenage Diary of Abbakka is the fictional diary of an unusual girl growing up during an exciting time-a girl who would eventually go to any lengths to protect and defend her kingdom.

Description Fifteen-year-old April lives in Imphal valley and has grown up learning to save herself from tear-gas shells and hearing stories about children disappearing. But when her best friend Henthoiba goes missing, she is determined to find him. April finds an unlikely ally in Shalini Gupta, her new schoolmate and the daughter of an army man recently posted in Imphal. With no real leads except for a bag with some of Henthoiba's belongings and sharp deduction and combat skills, the two set out to find him. As they get sucked into the investigation, they stumble upon a dangerous, unknown world-where children disappear and are trafficked and trained to be soldiers. A world where drugs, arms and gold are peddled across borders. Was Henthoiba abducted because he knew too much about this world? What awaits Shalini and April at the floating island on Loktak Lake where Henthoiba was last seen? Unflinching, tender and action-packed, Children of the Hidden Land is a story about two girls who overcome their prejudices to question their existing ideas about nation, friendship and ambition. Above all, it is a story of hope and courage.