Abandon Arunava Trans Sinha / Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay -HARPERCOLLINS
A powerful novel about an artist mother and her child. I ran away from home and from the shackles of society, family and attachments. I just wanted I to live my life, write my novel,follow my passions. I didn’t know that my five-year-old boy had followed me out, but with that realization, Ishwari emerged from within me: a mother, a woman with responsibilities, a woman who was ready to suppress her dreams to protect her son. My son-a child I do not want. ‘Ishwari and Roo wandered the streets at night, looking for a place to stay. A kind old caretaker gave them an empty room on the terrace of a guest house. Ishwari found a job as caregiver to the handsome gentleman who lived next door, while Roo-her weak, invalid son-was locked up all day in the room on the roof. ‘And I struggle to find my place in this dark novel. I yearn for passion and despair-for that is what makes good literature-while Ishwari seeks a life of joy for herself and her son’. Pulsating with raw energy, Abandon gives voice to the perpetual conflict between life and art.
Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay burst into readers’ attention with her controversial first novel, Shankhini. Abandon is the third of her nine novels. She has also written over fifty short stories. A newspaper columnist and film-critic, Sangeeta is not a feminist and engages herself with exploring the individual’s relationship with the universe through her fiction. She lives and writes in Kolkata.
