Jalasamadhi and Other Stories – Sethu, Translated from Malayalam by Prema Jayakumar

Description

Sethu’s novels and short stories have always straddled the worlds of the commonplace and the magical, keeping a fine balance. Long before magical realism became a buzzword, Sethu’s stories took us to the supernatural in the most mundane situations.

The stories in this collection unfold the worlds that are familiar, yet give us glimpses of strange shadows and lights just beyond our sight. Along with characters who drift between fantasy and the here and now, we have a common man like Munuswami, the protagonist of Jalasamadhi, who realizes that it is a bigger sin to induce someone to commit a crime than to commit a crime oneself. The characters who people Sethu’s world take on layers of myth and legend, imagination and poetry but have one thing in common – they are with us long after we have kept the book aside.