Just as a good Danish pastry consists of layer upon layer upon layer of rich pastry, so The Body in the Clouds is formed from layers of rich storytelling. In her first novel, shortlisted for the 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Best First Book, Ashley Hay takes one moment in history and tells three different stories.
READ MORE

The ghosts of Kamalini Sengupta's Rajmahal fret and fume over renovations made to the Calcutta mansion as it is sold and divided into six apartments. Even more disturbing is the motley cross-section of fashionable Calcutta society that moves into those apartments.
READ MORE

In language at times reminiscent of the intricacy of calligraphic script, The Calligrapher's Night tells the story of Rikkat Kunt, the author's grandmother. Beginning with her death in 1986 and going back to the years of her youth, Rikkat narrates her life through much of Turkey's eventful 20th century history.
READ MORE

The story "A Riot of Goldfish," traces Mataichi, the son of a goldfish breeder, through his lifelong struggles with his unrequited love for the daughter of the family's patron. He loves Masako, but she loves goldfish.
READ MORE

Sara Highbury, the manager of a Cape Town, South Africa boarding house, lives her life in the past. She is haunted by a man named Herbert Wakeford, the love of her life who suffered from a degenerative brain condition. One day not long after Herbert's death, another of Sara's lovers, Amin Hafferjee, pays her an unexpected visit, and Sara proceeds to tell him her life's story.
READ MORE