"As Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak points out in her introduction, the breast is far more than a symbol in these stories-it is the means of harshly indicting an exploitative social system.
In 'Draupadi', the protagonist, Dopdi Mejhen, is a tribal revolutionary, who, arrested and gang-raped in custody, turns the terrible wounds of her breast into a counter-offensive.
In 'Breast-giver', a woman who becomes a professional wet-nurse to support her family, dies of painful breast cancer, betrayed alike by the breasts that had for years been her chief identity and the dozens of 'sons' she had suckled.
In 'Behind the Bodice', migrant labourer Gangor's 'statuesque' breasts excite the attention of ace photographer Upin Puri, triggering off a train of violence that ends in tragedy.
Spivak introduces this cycle of 'breast stories' with thought-provoking essays which probe the texts of the stories, opening them up to a complex of interpretation and meaning."
"A trenchant, darkly humorous, and unsentimental look at Calcutta society.
Set in Calcutta in the mid-1980s, Truth/Untruth is a fast-paced thriller built around the death of the pregnant Jamuna-a maid in a newly affluent residential apartment complex-and Arjun, the upwardly mobile businessman who seduced her. Packed with a cast of colorful characters, this novel is a trenchant, darkly humorous, and unsentimental look at the different segments of Calcutta society: from the middle-class culture vultures to the unscrupulous 'promoter' class and the domestic helpers and slum goons who form an intrinsic part of the city's life. All are implicated in a complex web of guilt and bizarre twists and turns. Sex, lies, death-the great modernist themes-run like a thread through this book, exposing societal greed, lust, corruption, and moral hypocrisy with a sardonic tone that spares none. An unusual novel by an author who is otherwise known for her hard-hitting activist-feminist stories, Truth/Untruth underlines the exploitative vicious cycle that defines urban relations between the haves and have-nots."
"Revolving around the life of Sanichari, a poor low-caste villagewoman, Mahasweta Devi's Rudali is an ironic tale of exploitation, struggle and survival."
"As the warriors are cremated, the skies above Kurukshetra are dark with circling birds of prey. Reek of rotting flesh. Row upon row of oil-soaked wood pyres piled high with decomposing bodies. They are set alight. The pyres burn for days. With the ancient epic Mahabharata as her source, and the battle of Kurukshetra as a central motif, Mahasweta Devi weaves three stories in which we visit unexpected alleys and by-lanes of the traditional epic saga, and look at events from the eyes of women-marginalized, dispossessed, dalit. Their eyes condemn the wanton waste and inhumanity of war. This Kurukshetra is not the legendary Dharmayuddha of the popular imagination but rather a cold-blooded power game sacrificing countless human lives."
"It's the mid-to-late 1800s and the British have banished Wajid Ali Shah-the nawab of Awadh in Lucknow-to Calcutta. To the sound of the soulful melody of the sarangi, the mercurial courtesan Laayl-e Aasman is playing a dangerous game of love, loyalty, deception, and betrayal. Bajrangi and Kundan, bound by their love for each other and for Laayl-e, struggle to keep their balance. Ranging across generations and geography, the scale of Laayl-e's story sweeps the devil, a crime lord, and many other remarkable characters into a heady mix.
Mirror of the Darkest Night is almost an aberration in Mahasweta Devi's oeuvre. Known for her activism and hard-hitting indictment of social inequalities, she pays close attention to detail in this sparkling novel. It offers a rare glimpse of Devi's talent for telling the sort of story she normally eschewed-and it's a cracker of a tale."
"পৃথিবীর আদিমতম এবং পবিত্রতম অনুভূতিটি হল প্রেম। আদম-ঈভের ভালবাসা থেকে শুরু করে একবিংশ শতকের আধুনিক প্রেম – এই ব্যাপক বিস্তারে পারিপার্শ্বিক বদলালেও বদলায়নি শুধু প্রেমিক-প্রেমিকার হৃদয়ের আকুল আর্তিটি। নবকল্লোল পত্রিকায় এ যাবৎ প্রকাশিত সেরা প্রেমের গল্পগুলির ডালি সাজিয়ে দেওয়া হয়েছে এই সংকলনে।
আশাপূর্ণা দেবী থেকে শুরু করে হাল আমলের অনীশ দেব প্রমুখ লেখকের সৃষ্ট ভিন্ন স্বাদের ও জটিল থেকে জটিলতর মনস্তত্ত্ব এবং প্রেমের জোয়ারে এই গ্রন্থের গল্পগুলি হয়ে উঠেছে অত্যন্ত সুখপাঠ্য ও হৃদয়গ্রাহী।"
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