Anklet and Other Stories by Shome Dasgupta

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Category: Books
Published: Friday, 12 May 2017 17:27
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We are proud to announce that a new collection of shorts stories, Anklet and Other Stories, by Shome Dasgupta has been released.  This collection contains 14 of Shome's short stories. 

 

 

The stories are all set in his ancestral home of Kolkata and are reminiscent of the magical realism found in the works of Salman Rushdie and Jorge Luis Borges.  Anklet and Other Stories is Dasgupta's third book.

A short excerpt from Anklet and Other Stories: A Good Conversation

Every Sunday, when I would walk home from the market I would see a man
sitting on the porch of a house on the road. He wore a straw hat, with
ripped slacks, black shoes, and a blue kurta. His eyes were always
red—they glared at me every week. One time, as I held a bag of
lettuce and tomatoes, he called to me with a grunt. I waved and
continued to walk but he grunted again and motioned me to come visit.

I stood at the foot of his porch; he looked at me for a few seconds
before he said that I look like I needed a good beating. I asked him
why. Because he didn’t like me, he said. I asked him again
why. Because he didn’t like my eyes.

I looked at his, red and narrow. I didn't know what else to say, so I
walked off to the sound of him cackling and coughing. That happened
every week for about a month. The last time was about a month ago, and
I haven’t seen him on the porch since. I’ve wondered where he went,
and I’ve missed those red vicious eyes.

Maybe I did need a good beating. He did scare me a bit, but
nonetheless, he was the only person I talked to on Sundays.

 

About Shome Dasgupta

Shome Dasgupta is a high school English teacher, living in Lafayette, LA. He is the author of i am here And You Are Gone (Winner Of The 2010 OW Press Fiction Chapbook Contest), and The Seagull And The Urn (HarperCollins India, 2013) which has been republished in the UK by Accent Press as The Sea Singer (2016). Anklet and Other Stories is his first collection of short stories. His writing has appeared in Puerto Del Sol, New Orleans Review, NANO Fiction, Everyday Genius, Redivider, Magma Poetry, and elsewhere.

His fiction has been selected to appear in The \&Now Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing Anthology (\&Now Books, 2013). His work has been featured as a South Million Writers Award Notable Story, nominated for The Best Of The Net, and longlisted for the Wigleaf Top 50. His website can be found at his website.