{"product_id":"no-presents-please-by-jayant-kaikini-9781922310187","title":"No Presents Please","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWinner of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and the Atta Galatta-Bangalore Literature Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, Jayant Kaikini is one of India's most celebrated short-story writers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor readers of Jhumpa Lahiri and Rohinton Mistry, as well as Lorrie Moore and George Saunders, here are stories on the pathos and comedy of small-town migrants struggling to build a life in the big city, with the dream world of Bollywood never far away.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eJayant Kaikini's gaze takes in the people in the corners of Mumbai - a bus driver who, denied vacation time, steals the bus to travel home; a slum dweller who catches cats and sells them for pharmaceutical testing; a father at his wits' end who takes his mischievous son to a reform institution.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this metropolis, those who seek find epiphanies in dark movie theatres, the jostle of local trains, and even in roadside keychains and lost thermos flasks. Here, in the shade of an unfinished overpass, a factory-worker and her boyfriend browse wedding invitations bearing wealthy couples' affectations - 'no presents please' - and look once more at what they own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eTranslated from the Kannada by Tejaswini Niranjana, these resonant stories, recently awarded the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, take us to photo framers, flower markets, and Irani cafes, revealing a city trading in fantasies while its strivers, eating once a day and sleeping ten to a room, hold secret ambitions close.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eJayant Kaikini's stories are like portals opening from the routines of our lives into the unusual and mysterious, where everything contains unseen possibilities. For the outsiders in these stories, even the act of dreaming feels rebellious. A wonderful, and wonderfully translated, collection of stories.\u003c\/em\u003e - Akil Kumarasamy, author of \u003cem\u003eHalf Gods\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eKaikini's talent lies in his ability to simultaneously capture the humdrum routine of his characters' lives and plumb the depths of their desires ... These stories poignantly express the characters' feelings of triumph amid the limitations of circumstance.\u003c\/em\u003e - \u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eKaikini's style and themes will have a familiar ring for Western audiences; there are echoes of Jhumpa Lahiri and George Saunders. But his vision of a bustling city, his sense of its drama and magical moments, is his own. A welcome introduction of a commanding writer to a wider audience.\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eSTARRED REVIEW\u003c\/strong\u003e - Kirkus Reviews\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46550285943020,"sku":"9781922310187","price":32.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/11512993482872.jpg?v=1749967157","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/no-presents-please-by-jayant-kaikini-9781922310187","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}