I think this has to be one of my favourite The Greatest Short Stories edition from @alephbookco . A. J. Thomas, writer and poet has selected & translated fifty stories to be part of this fantastic collection. The themes are varied and hits a chord. Written masterfully, we are introduced to old and budding writers who pull you into the rich and immersive world of Malayalam literature. This comes a close second for me in the language series but the translation earns major points as it left no room for error and doubt.

The first two stories captures the essence of rural women who live complex lives. In ‘Vision’, we see a woman whose marriage has become hot topic of conversation receiving surprising advice from her grandmother. In ‘Scent of a Bird’ we are taken to a world that exists between life and death. ‘Sethu’ explores a strange and detached relationship between a father and his son. But my favourite of all was ‘Photo’ which addresses the issue of child molestation followed closely by ‘Pempi’, another hard hitting tale about tribal women. Out of the fifty short stories, there were hardly two or three that didn’t work for me.

The world of Malayalam literature is famous for addressing difficult topics and this book was no different. I found it to be a melting pot of interesting themes, voices and ideas and I enjoyed reading all of them. I highly recommend this to those who enjoy reading translated literature.

Thank you for the copy @alephbookco ✨