Niyogi Books

Fresh from prison, a woman returns home to grapple with her husband's betrayal; accused of witchcraft, an aging midwife becomes the scapegoat for a tragedy; and a destitute widow's life takes a surreal turn when she is thrust into local politics. Barak Valley-lush, picturesque, and seemingly tranquil to outsiders-emerges in these stories as both tormentor and refuge, a witness to its people's quiet hunger for connection, belonging, and dignity. Whether it is a mother confronting her daughter's pregnancy out of wedlock, an octogenarian rediscovering her forgotten love for the sitar, or a child forming an unlikely friendship with an elderly man, the characters in this anthology reveal the singularity of seemingly ordinary lives.

Colour My Grave Purple is an unusual anthology of historical fiction from Assam which spans a century of the Northeastern state's colourful past, evoking a vivid journey from the 1850s to the 2000s. Through stories about the peoples, cultures, ecology and socio-political paradigms of the frontier region, readers will stumble upon a fascinating mix of characters and entities; from occult practitioners and drunk elephants to a British-Naga queen and the Chinese red army. In these stories, Assam will encounter Britain, Japan and China through lived experiences that seamlessly traverse the natural-supernatural dichotomy, while attempting to understand its own identity as a state.

Man and beast come together, rage together in the undulating staccato of Amrita Nilanjana's ambitious collection of short stories from Sundarbans and beyond. The shimmering waves of the Ganges, pungent tiger musk too close for comfort, the menacing, oppressive silence of the Sundarbans, its terrifying beauty and the valiant perseveration of the people who inhabit it-make up the diegetic universe of this land.

Middle of the week, in front of the school where she drops off her son every day, Draupadi witnesses something grotesque. The ludicrous ways of fate leave the ball in her court—should she inform the police, or hold on to the safety of her little boy, her husband miles away in a forest battling his own demons? Does one dare explore the limits of courage when the stakes are life and safety? From the pen of one of Odisha’s most inventive writers comes a novel of quiet perseveration and struggle for a better life within the parameters of genteel norms and bureaucracy.

The Paradesis and the Malabaris have been at loggerheads for centuries, with carefully drawn lines separating the two communities. It is a marriage the elders will never agree to, and Esther stands to lose everything. Meanwhile, the newly formed state of Israel opens its doors to Jewish immigrants from around the world, calling upon Jews to make aaliyah to their fatherland. Yehuda and Esther are faced with a dilemma—should they start their lives afresh in Israel or stay back in Cochin and try to reconcile their world? et in the 1950s, in the land of silk, spices, and synagogues, The Ballad of Jew Town tells the story of two young lovers who find themselves caught between two communities and nations as they discover what it means to be an Indian Jew.

Devavratt and his friends navigate the rapidly changing landscape of their homeland, moving from the bustling school and college corridors of the 70s and 80s to the dynamic corporate offices of the 21st century. Their dreams and challenges unfold against the backdrop of a modernizing India. Through heartfelt conversations and spirited debates, playful pranks and nostalgic reunions, the characters delve into nationalism, cultural pride, social-economic changes in India, love, friendship and spirituality.

The novel The Madhouse is an allegorical novel that chronicles the jarring transformations occurring in the psyche of the Indian society by the onslaught of liberalisation in the 1990s. It is in this reign of the free-market economy and excessive consumption that the nameless characters of The Madhouse find themselves. In fact, in a way, there are only two characters in this novel. There is ‘The Bazaar’, representing the free - market forces, and then there is ‘The Citizen’, whose reincarnations within the various vignettes of the novel are trapped in the vicious cycle of distress and fears which manifest themselves in myriad situations. But, fundamentally, it is only one character. Somewhere, his dreams have been stolen, somewhere else, his memories have been abducted. In another situation, he has forgotten who he is and in yet another one, he is looking for a lock to safeguard himself from the prying eyes of the Bazaar— but the Bazaar is looking for him.

Pudumaipithan (1906-1948) is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of short stories in Tamil, and as the harbinger of literary modernism in the language. He is remembered for having revolutionized Tamil prose into a medium through which he approached the lives and emotions of subaltern urban and rural characters, with a distinctly modern sensibility. This biography, written immediately after Pudumaipithan’s death, by someone very close to him, remains the most authentic biography of the writer till date.