NEXT DOOR STORIES

 : Next Door Stories

 : Jahnavi Barua

 : 231

 : #fiction

⭐ : ./5

Some stories soothe your nerves, calm your distressed soul and lull you to a wondrous dream. Well, this collection of eleven humanely powerful stories had this effect on me! “Unexpected” would be a better word to describe them.

The Brahmaputra river is the riveting hero in almost all the stories woven in this delicacy of a book. Just like the river, the stories are rich, full and flow with ease, with sudden and starling glimpses of turbulence concealed beneath the placid surface of human emotions. Through each story, we are taken into the private, individual worlds of varied humans and exposed to the intricate mesh of their emotions, innocent desires, furtive longings, the complexities of fierce love and terrible consequences of it’s betrayal, seeking closure to certain traumatic events, and so on. These are just few of the themes played out in these stories that depict what it means and takes to be a human!

 Predominantly set in the verdant landscape of Assam, each story brims with deft descriptions, heart-wrenching suprises, an understanding of how the landscape enters and affects the human patterns of living and loving. The characters are unerringly human and the author has delved so deep into them that they come out alive, flesh, bones and skin, breathing right beside you. Each story doesn’t prepare you for the next, with the simple prose hiding their dark nature!

My plaudits to the author for effortlessly weaving such simple yet effective stories. The profoundness of what is left unsaid and subtle handling of human mind are some of the strongest points in this book. She has a knack of leaving the endings unclear or hanging, and does so brilliantly. My favourite was a story titled ‘Holiday Homework’ that brings to us a beautiful bond shared between three people — a mother, her son and an old man. The end left me numb, despite me seeing it coming. That’s the power of Janhavi’s words!

I read this book for #underratedbooksreadathon and I’m glad I picked this wonderful and moving book of timeless tales!