Ladies Coupe

The story of a woman's search for strength and independence

Meet Akhilandeshwari, Akhila for short: forty-five and single, an income tax clerk and a woman who has never been allowed to live her own life—always the daughter, the sister, the aunt, the provider. Until the day she gets herself a one-way ticket to the seaside town of Kanyakumari, gloriously alone for the first time in her life and determined to break free of all that her conservative Tamil brahmin life has bound her to.

In the intimate atmosphere of the ladies coupe which she shares with five other women, Akhila gets to know her fellow travellers: Janaki, pampered wife and confused mother; Margaret Shanti, a chemistry teacher married to the poetry of elements and an insensitive tyrant too self-absorbed to recognize her needs; Prabha Devi, the perfect daughter and wife, transformed for life by a glimpse of a swimming pool; fourteen-year-old Sheela, with her ability to perceive what others cannot; and Marikolanthu, whose innocence was destroyed by one night of lust.

As she listens to the women's stories, Akhila is drawn into the most private moments of their lives, seeking in them a solution to the question that has been with her all her life: Can a woman stay single and be happy, or does a woman need a man to feel complete?

‘Articulate, comic, wise, delicate, melancholy, exquisite...a carefully-pulsed breath of a book with an impact that sneaks into one’s dreams’

—Independent

In turn revelatory and redeeming. Filled with the incantatory power to burn up the tracks, to seek a new destination. Her style stands out.

—The Pioneer, New Delhi

Anita Nair is a fine writer, with a great sense of character and is a compelling teller of stories.

—The Hindu, New Delhi

Each of the women is finely drawn.

—The Hindustan Times, New Delhi

'The novel is about making choices and living life on one's own terms. It is this strength and resilience of the everyday woman that Nair brings out as a writer. Nair's women are fleshed out to the last detail. You can visualize them clearly -their faces, their bones, their desires—as they talk animatedly in the train discussing their lives.'

—The Telegraph, Calcutta

‘‘ ‘Articulate, comic, wise, delicate, melancholy, exquisite...a carefully-pulsed breath of a book with an impact that sneaks into one’s dreams.’ —Independent'''In turn revelatory and redeeming... Filled with the incantatory power to burn up the tracks, to seek a new destination. Her style stands out.'''—The Pioneer, New Delhi'''Anita Nair is a fine writer, with a great sense of character and is a compelling teller of stories.''' —The Hindu, New Delhi '''Each of the women is finely drawn.'''—The Hindustan Times, New Delhi '''The novel is about making choices and living life on one'''s own terms. It is this strength and resilience of the everyday woman that Nair brings out as a writer. Nair'''s women are fleshed out to the last detail. You can visualize them clearly -their faces, their bones, their desires -as they talk animatedly in the train discussing their lives.''' —The Telegraph, Calcutta