A DELIGHTFULLY IMAGINATIVE NOVEL FULL OF STORIES ABOUT WOMEN LIVING THEIR LIVES AND THEIR DREAMS IN A TRADITIONAL MUSLIM HOUSEHOLD GRADUALLY MAKING ITS PEACE WITH MODERNITY.

'They come to me at night.'

Zuby has a plan to escape Delhi's unforgiving smog; she will take her beleagured lungs to her husband's ancestral home in Gangapur and wait out the winter. Many years after she first arrived as a not-so-shy bride, she settles into a cottage set inside a mango orchard. But her hope for some peace and quiet is quashed soon enough, as her husband's larger-than-life family descends, invited or uninvited.
In the days-and nights-that follow, the lines become blurred between what's real and what isn't, as tales unfold of broken promises and unclaimed treasures, of shocking losses and equally unexpected gains.
Tender and deeply moving, The Aunts of Gangapur shines a light into the life of a traditional Muslim household coming to terms with change and modernity. Shot through with laughter as well as piercing grief, it brings together the colours of life and love in an unforgettable chiaroscuro.

About the Author

Dr Rakhshanda Jalil is a multi-award-winning translator, writer, and literary historian. She has published over thirty books and written over fifty academic papers and essays. Her recent books include Footprints on Zero Line: Writings on the Partition, translations of short stories and poems by Gulzar; a collection of essays on identity, culture, politics and literature entitled But You Don't Look Like a Muslim; Love in the Time of Hate: In the Mirror of Urdu, essays on politics, passions and people; The Story of Eve: Selected Poems of Zehra Nigah, translations from Urdu; and Whose Urdu Is It Anyway? Stories by Non-Muslim Urdu Writers; and a debut collection of fiction, Release & Other Stories. She runs an organisation called Hindustani Awaaz, devoted to the popularisation of Hindi-Urdu literature and culture. The Aunts of Gangapur is her first novel