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A magical tour de force by a writer at the height of her powers, ‘When Dreams Travel’ weaves round Scheherazade-or Shahrzad of the thousand and one nights-a vibrant, inventive story about that old game that’s never played out: the quest for love and power. The curtain opens on four figures, two men and two women. There is the sultan who wants a virgin every night; there is his brother, who makes an enemy of darkness and tries to banish it; and there are their ambitious brides, the sisters Shahrzad and Dunyazad, aspiring to be heroines-or martyrs. Travelling in and out of these lives to spellbinding effect is a range of stories, dark, poetic and witty by turns, spanning medieval to contemporary times. With its sharp and lively blend of past and present, its skillful reworking of the historical tradition, and its controlled use of evocative language, Githa Hariharan’s multi-voiced narrative assumes the significance of modern myth.
Imprint: India Penguin
Published: Oct/2018
ISBN: 9780143104285
Length : 288 Pages
MRP : ₹350.00
Imprint: Penguin Audio
Published:
ISBN:
Imprint: India Penguin
Published: Oct/2018
ISBN: 9789386651938
Length : 288 Pages
MRP : ₹350.00
A magical tour de force by a writer at the height of her powers, ‘When Dreams Travel’ weaves round Scheherazade-or Shahrzad of the thousand and one nights-a vibrant, inventive story about that old game that’s never played out: the quest for love and power. The curtain opens on four figures, two men and two women. There is the sultan who wants a virgin every night; there is his brother, who makes an enemy of darkness and tries to banish it; and there are their ambitious brides, the sisters Shahrzad and Dunyazad, aspiring to be heroines-or martyrs. Travelling in and out of these lives to spellbinding effect is a range of stories, dark, poetic and witty by turns, spanning medieval to contemporary times. With its sharp and lively blend of past and present, its skillful reworking of the historical tradition, and its controlled use of evocative language, Githa Hariharan’s multi-voiced narrative assumes the significance of modern myth.
Githa Hariharan has written novels, short fiction and essays over the last three decades. Her highly acclaimed works include The Thousand Faces of Night, which won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book in 1993; the short story collection The Art of Dying; the novels The Ghosts of Vasu Master, When Dreams Travel, In Times of Siege, Fugitive Histories and I Have Become the TIde; and a collection of essays titled Almost Home: Cities and Other Places.
Hariharan has, over the years, been a cultural commentator through her essays, lectures and activism. In 1995, she challenged the Hindu Minority and Guardianship Act as discriminatory against women. The case, Githa Hariharan and Another vs Reserve Bank of India and Another, led to a landmark Supreme Court judgment in 1999 on guardianship.
For more on the author and her work, see githahariharan.com