Reads Like Magic

In Tomb of Sand-Daisy Rockwell's translation of Geetanjali Shree's novel-everything is illuminated

- Aditya Mani Jha

TOMB OF SAND

BY GEETANJALI SHREE; TRANSLATED BY DAISY ROCKWELL

Penguin ₹699; 696 pages

In the summer of 2020, shortly after I had finished reading Ret-Samadhi, Geetanjali Shree's Hindi-language novel (originally published in 2018 by Rajkamal), I climbed a really old tree in my neighbourhood, part of which had been trimmed by municipal authorities.

Acually, 'climbed' is an exaggeration since I settled on a sturdy branch about halfway (15-20 ft) up. But it was enough to give me all-new eyes on the mohalla I've lived in for a decade now.