The Shehnai Virtuoso

Dhumketu is a wonderfully gripping storyteller, and translator Jenny Bhatt has certainly done him justice in this excellent selection. Jennifer Croft, translator of The Books of Jacob The tragic love story of a village drummer and his dancer lover . . . A long-awaited letter that arrives too late . . . A teahouse near Darjeeling, run by a mysterious queen . . . The Shehnai Virtuoso brings together the first substantial collection of Dhumketus work to be available in English. A legend of Gujarati literature, Dhumketu revolutionized the short story in India. Characterized by a fine sensitivity, deep humanism, perceptive observation, and an intimate knowledge of both rural and urban life, his fiction has provided entertainment and edification to generations of Gujarati readers and speakers. Beautifully translated for a wide new audience by Jenny Bhatt, these much-loved storieslike the finest literatureremain remarkable and relevant even today.