Description

A triptych of superbly constructed novellas constitute Anita Desai’s beautiful new guide. Occur contemporary India, but where record still casts an extended shadow, the tales go beyond the towns to locations still haunted by yesteryear, and to figures who're, each within their own way, experts of self-effacement. In ‘The Memorial of Ultimate Journeys’ an unnamed government official is known as upon to examine a pale estate of neglected items, each delivered home by the missing, itinerant grasp. As he's obtained through the property, questioning whether to truly save these valuable artifacts, he reaches the ultimate – best – present of, emerging from the shadows.   In ‘Translator, Translated’, middle aged Prema fulfills her effective writer buddy Tara in a college reunion. Tara employs her as a translator, but Prema, buoyed by her work and the sense of purpose it provides, starts intentionally to blur the line between author and translator, and in that way dangers unravelling her wishes and achievements.  The ultimate tale is of Ravi, existing hermit-like in the burned-out shell of his home high-up in the Himalayan hills.