by Geeta Dharmarajan

This collection, which gathers fifteen stories by contemporary Indian women representing the varied languages and regions of their subcontinent, is now available to an American audience for the first time. Western readers have come to recognize the names of Indian writers such as Arundhati Roy and Salman Rushdie. But there is great diversity in Indian fiction, and to refer to all literature produced in India or by Indians under a single rubric suppresses rich differences. The region's vibrant literary tradition comprises diverse cultures and writing styles. The array of stories in this collection brings out linguistic, regional, ethnic, and class-based variety in the manner of anthologies of any nation's literature, but with a range and depth rarely matched elsewhere.

The stories included in Separate Journeys powerfully evoke Indian women's lives in diverse settings, from urban to village to rural. Unfolding the complex interplay of gender, language, class, and ethnicity characteristic of this part of the world, and running from the passionate to the poignant, from the personal to the universal, the stories are a moving testament to the human spirit.