Inner Voices

A celebrated writer takes an honest and uncompromising look at individuals and their tangled lives

Kishori Charan Das, winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1976, is an eminent Oriya author whose works have been widely translated. In this collection of nine short stories, Das observes the many facets of the Indian middle class, the choices they make, the disenchantments and anxieties that characterize their lives, their petty foibles and great expectations.

A father, who has found comfort in the stillness of a flower in his garden, silently battles his restless son; a simple tailor’s unwavering faith in God is pitted against an educated lawyer’s sense of intellectual superiority; a mother and daughter engage in unspoken recriminations and justifications as they strive to bridge years of distances; and a couple in the twilight of their lives spar with each other, bickering over shared memories as they move towards a semblance of understanding.