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Today’s Fictions
ISBN 978-81-89020-77-4
2007. PB. Rs 175
5.25”x7.5”. pp. 112
Translated from the Oriya
Cover Painting: Datta Bansode
Cover Design: Geeta Dharmarajan

Anoma’s Daughter
Santanu Kumar Acharya
Translated by Bibhas C Mohanty and the Author

An ancient house. A timeless river. A man's passionate quest to unearth his past. Renowned Oriya novelist revisits the Buddha legend, but with a tantalizing twist. Will Raghumastré find the key to the mystery? Archaeology, romance, prophecy packed into a tight-knit richly detailed historical thriller. An absorbing read, startlingly fresh.

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Today’s Fictions
ISBN 978-81-89934-00-2
2007. PB. Rs 175
5.25”x7.5”. pp. 128
Translated from the Malayalam
Cover Photograph: Charu Dutt Chitrak, Courtesy: Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, Bangalore
Cover Design: Geeta Dharmarajan

DANCE
M Mukundan
Translated by D Krishna Ayyar and K G Ramakrishnan

A passion for dance. A celebration of the body.
A meeting of contrasts. A journey of becoming, and unbecoming.
A voice from the wilderness of cyberspace with a strangely compelling story. Told with the quiet seduction and fluidity reminiscent of a skate on ice. Katha presents a haunting tribute to dance, and the elusive quest for self in a shapeshifting world. A many-layered work, perfectly executed by a pioneer of contemporary fiction.

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Author: Krishna Sobti

Translator: Shivanath

ISBN 81-87649-21-6
2002. HB. Rs 150
5.25”x7.5”. pp. 112
Translated from the Hindi
Cover photo: Prokash Karmakar
Cover Design: Geeta Dharmarajan

LISTEN GIRL!

Ai Ladki, the classic. A sentence in every word, a world in every silence. The ladki – girl, daughter, child, all rolled into one – spins an absorbing tale of love in the time of death, the distances between a daughter and her mother, and the indescribable closeness. The essence of friendship in every mother daughter relationship that Krishna Sobti has magicked for us – a must read for all daughters and mothers, and the men who want to know them.

Ai Ladki, which created a storm when it was published in 1991, is brought to you in an exquisite translation by Shivanath that catches the deep story, the silences … Katha proudly presents the first of the Krishna Sobti series.

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Katha Trailblazer
ISBN 81-87649-12-7
2001. HB. Rs 200
5.25”x7.5”. pp 208
Translated from the Gujarati
Cover painting: Bhupen Khakhar
Cover Design: Geeta Dharmarajan

BHUPEN KHAKHAR
Bhupen Khakhar
Translated by Ganesh Devy, Naushil Mehta, Bina Srinvasan

Good fiction is art. Literally. Here’s a selection of three stories, a play, and a novella, along with 13 sketches, by writer-painter Bhupen Khakhar. He was at ease with words as much as he was with his brush. A collector’s item, this volume is a wonderful juxtaposition of two complementary creative processes.

“The subtle humour, irony and the all seeing eye of the artist … rise above language with strokes that make ordinary characters pulsate with life.”

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Katha Trailblazer

ISBN 81-87649-11-9
2002. HB. Rs 150
5.25”x7.5”. pp. 160
Translated from the Asomiya
Cover painting: Madhvi Parekh
Cover Design: Geeta Dharmarajan

PAGES STAINED WITH BLOOD

Indira Goswami

Translated by Pradip Acharya

A thought-provoking and candid history of the 1984 riots. Indira Goswami reacts to the bloodshed and the savagery that followed Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination and weaves a powerful tale of human frailties and mindless violence.

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Katha Novella
ISBN 978-81-87649-48-9
2008. PB. Rs 200
5.25”x7.5”. pp. 112
Translated from the Hindi
Cover Design: Geeta Dharmarajan
Cover Painting: Datta Bansode

Sunflowers of the Dark
Krishna Sobti
Translated by Pamela Manasi

She's a good girl, sweet and brave. Battling a decades-old darkness. Stark, sensitive and immensely subtle, this unusual novella is a woman's journey through years of longing, loss and withdrawal. Until she finds herself, and rediscovers desire. Once again, Krishna Sobti breaks new ground, challenging normative truths with profound insight and compassion.

“Sobti's canvas is the human heart. Its shimmering shades and unfathomable depths are captured through … layered dialogue and dynamic characters who evolve into new beings as time wields its unyielding whip.”  

—The Hindu

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Katha Novella
ISBN 81-87649-72-0
2005. PB. Rs 200
7.5”x5.25”. pp. 184
Translated from the Tamil
Cover painting: Ebe Chaney
Cover Design: Netra Shyam

THE STONE LAUGHS AND ATONEMENT

La Sa Ra
Translated by Padma Narayanan

Two novellas by one of the pioneers of modern Tamil literature, presented for the first time in an English translation.

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Katha Novella
ISBN 978-81-87649-55-7
2007. HB. Rs 200
7.5”x5.25”. pp. 120
Cover Design: Geeta Dharmarajan

Cover Painting: Jatin Das

Translated from the Hind

Tohellwithyou Mitro
Krishna Sobti
Translated by Gita Rajan and Raji Narasimhan

Krishna Sobti's lively, unapologetic portrayal of a married woman who brooks no limits to her sexuality is as compelling, pertinent and provocative today as when it first shook the Hindi literary world in 1966. Katha presents another masterpiece from one of the most spirited writers of our times.

"Mitro Marjani was not a writer's story ... I was amazed at the surprises Mitro gave me at every turn. Brought up outside the walls of patriarchy ... Mitro is her mother's daughter who can voice her desires and get away with it. She has no inhibitions about talking of things tabooed by tradition. She really impressed me."

—Krishna Sobti

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Katha Trailblazer
ISBN 81-87649-10-0
2001. HB. Rs 120
5.25”x7.5”. pp. 112
Translated from the Malayalam
Cover painting: K S Kulkarni
Cover Design: Geeta Dharmarajan

PAUL ZACHARIA: TWO NOVELLAS
Paul Zacharia
Translated by Gita Krishnankutty

In two brilliant novellas, master storyteller Paul Zacharia offers contrasting shades of life. While on one hand he talks about the unpredictability of life and how it silently usurps a placid existence, on the other, he delves into the depths of an analytical mind that tries to rationalize the most morbid of murders of civilization. A recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award and Katha Award for Creative Fiction, Paul Zacharia is one of the best known writers in Malayalam today.

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Katha Novella
ISBN: 81-87649-07-0
2000. PB. Rs 200
5.5”x8”. pp 164
Translated from the Malayalam
Cover Design: Atanu Roy

VYASA AND VIGHNESHWARA
Anand
Translated by Saji Mathew

Vyasa and Vighneshwara is art created anew, a fine example of storytelling at its best. Anand weaves in a startling fashion the modern with the traditional, memory with myth, leaving the reader to discover and explore stories within stories, the past within the future. A complete piece of work, it offers half-complete texts located in times far removed from each other, and yet woven together in myriad ways. The reader gradually gets involved in a curious, dynamic process, along with the writer, of tying and untying knots. As it reveals the finer aspects of beauty, a critique of society, politics, myth, and thought itself, it rebuilds and re-establishes the concept of story.

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Katha Trailblazer
ISBN 81-87649-13-5
2001. HB. Rs 150
5.25”x75”. pp 160
Translated from the Tamil
Cover painting: Shamshad Husain
Cover design: Geeta Dharmarajan

WATER
AshokaMitran
Translated by Lakshmi Holmström

A modern classic set in the summer of 1969 in the middle of the worst drought seen in Chennai, Water portrays the daily struggle of ordinary people trying to survive the crisis.

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Katha Trailblazer
ISBN 81-87649-63-1
2003. HB. Rs 120
5.25”x7.5”. pp. 112
Translated from the Tamil
Cover painting Satish Gujral
Cover Design: Geeta Dharmarajan

TWO NOVELLAS AND A STORY
Ambai
Translated by C T Indra, Prema Seetharam and Uma Narayanan

This collection brings together three representative works of C S Lakshmi, who writes under the pen name Ambai. Carrying the author’s hallmark of a minimalist style and memorable endings, they are an honest yet subtle exploration and unveiling of how women are oppressed and suppressed in the guise of love.

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Katha Screenplay
ISBN: 81-89020-23-4
2005. PB. Rs 200
5.5”x8”. pp 248
Translated from the Malayalam
Cover painting: G R Iranna
Cover Design: Geeta Dharmarajan

THE MASTER CARPENTER
M T Vasudevan Nair
Translated by Gita Krishnankutty

When the winds blow wild, snuffing out the flames, it is the Master Carpenter who takes up the challenge. Some quick calculations later he raises a stone slab, and the lamp burns steady. When his own heart plays games, the games of desire, once again he triumphs. But how does a father react, who knows that his son has far surpassed his talent, and fallen short of his heritage? The legend of Perumthachan, the Master Carpenter is recreated vividly from a popular folk tale by M T Vasudevan Nair, the Jnanpith, Sahitya Akademi and Padma Bhushan award winning writer.