These touching tales, with their humour, delicacy and warmth, are each centred on a woman character. There is kuli (Talaq) who finds herself unexpectedly divorced in the heat of a quarrel, but decides to defy societal taboos with her ex-husband, companion of many years. Mohini, lonely after her sons leave home, vows that since her husband objects to her verbosity, she will henceforth talk only to the crows and cranes('The Saga of Kagaboga'). This volume, spanning over three decades of writing, shows an unusually tender side to Maheshweta Devi, widely known for her satiric prose and biting indictment of societal inequities.

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