The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey

Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar

Aleph Book Company

224 pages, Rs 295

Rupi Baskey was once the strongest woman in the village of Kadamdihi, who bore her eldest child squatting in the middle of a rice paddy, shin-deep in slush. Soon after, Gurubari, her rival in love, gave her an illness that was like the alakjari vine, which engulfs the tallest, greenest trees of the forest and sucks their hearts out. Now Rupi lives out her days on a cot in her backyard, her life dissolving into incomprehensible ruin around her. Set in an obscure village in Jharkhand, this is an assured and original debut novel.