This book is an alluring escape to the land of dawn-lit mountains, Arunachal Pradesh. It features stories that are products of visceral observation and a delicate understanding of the ethnic communities living under intervening shadows of magic and realism in the isolated hinterlands of the state. A village is haunted by an insidious spirit tiger. A bee sting reminds a Nocte boy of his brother’s beheading and transforms him into a deadly headhunter. A Donyi-Polo priest must continue practising his animistic rituals to preserve the fading vestiges of his indigenous religion. The curse of a high priest follows the thief who stole the forbidden sacred ornaments . . . Such evocative and poignant tales make this debut collection a must-read.