Memories of Rain (Literary Activism Series)

About the BookMEMORIES OF RAIN MARKS THE TRIUMPHANT DEBUT OF A GIFTED AND COMPELLING VOICE ... GUPTA HAS BUILT UPON TRADITION AND RENDERED IT NEW AND COMPELLING. AND SHE HAS DONE SO IN WRITING OF THE HIGHEST QUALITY, PERCEPTIVE, PRECISE, AND WHOLLY ORIGINAL. SHASHI THAROOR, THE WASHINGTON POSTThis novel tells the story, partly through the events of one weekend, partly through the skilful use of memory and flashbacks, of a marriage between an Indian girl and an Englishman. Caught in the clash of two cultures, their love becomes mired in the pain of infidelity and misunderstanding.Kirkus Reviews called the novel a stunning, luminous debut set in Calcutta and London by a young, true heir to Virginia Woolf.The forward action of Guptas hypnotic novel takes place during a single weekend: Calcutta-born Moni, despondent over her English husbands infidelity, secretly plans to take their daughter and return to India on the childs sixth birthday. But the stream-of-consciousness narrative weaves together memories and images, providing not just the history of a fragile love but of a womans psychology and soul: Monis brother first brings Anthony home in the rain-swollen dark of a Calcutta floodstorm. She and the English student fall in love, expecting an unconsummated passion and years of satisfying, sorrowful memories. Instead, they marry and make their home in London, where Moniintense but too silentsoon disappoints. When Anthony begins to strayeven when his mistress becomes practically a member of the householdMoni believes his divided heart will add an edge to their painful, eternal love; she cannot bear it when his manner changes to kindness and indifference. Monis sensibilityformed by the poetry (both English and Bengali) of anguished passion, darkness, and deathis the basis for gorgeous prose that flickers between romantic longing and exquisite detail. Gupta is impossible to quote briefly. In her sinuous sentences past and present, London and Calcutta, reality and shadow and the painful phrases of Tagore songs melt into one another in long continuous streams. A rare shimmering dream of a book.About the AuthorSunetra Gupta is a novelist and Professor of Theoretical Epidemiology at the University of Oxford with an interest in infectious diseases. She has been awarded the Scientific Medal by the Zoological Society of London and the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award for her scientific research. Her novels have been awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Southern Arts Literature Prize, shortlisted for the Crossword Award, and longlisted for the Orange Prize and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.Her new novel, The Other Staircase, is forthcoming from Westland in late 2025.