Broken Nest and Other Stories
New Release
This selection of Tagore’s stories exemplifies his remarkable ability to enter the complexities of human relationships. Within seemingly simple plots Tagore portrays with unusual compassion and lyricism the predicament of Bengali women in traditional contexts, moving from the loneliness of an intelligent, beautiful woman neglected by her husband in his acclaimed novella ‘Broken Nest’, to the powerlessness of a young girl whose prized possession is taken away in ‘Notebook’, from the casual abandonment of an orphan in ‘Postmaster’ to a girl robbed of her childhood in ‘The Ghat’s Tale.’
Powerful in their simplicity, brilliant in their astuteness, the novella and the three short stories included in this collection—translated by acclaimed poet and fiction writer Sharmistha Mohanty—are some of the Nobel laureate’s finest prose works.
Sharmistha Mohanty reaches out not merely to Tagore's compassion and the vulnerable protagonists in his stories, but also renders the cadence of his Bengali and the rhythm of Bengali life from which these stories come. Few bring to their work the creativity and care that Mohanty does in these translations.
Sharmistha has been able to render both the rhythms of the prose and its essence.... She has experienced these writings very deeply, from her own place.
Reviews
For a translator, Broken Nest can become a lesson in reading between the lines, understanding the untranslatable emotions, and making these feelings real to a reader.