At Play and Other Stories by Amita Basu

Illness and violence, fair-weather friends and dysfunctional families, trauma and rapid cultural shifts – girls and women in contemporary India deal with the spectrum of life’s challenges and rewards.

These fifteen  stories feature Indian women – and, occasionally, nonhuman females – as they grapple with family and friendship, miscarriages and runaway children, rapid sociocultural shifts, love and sex, work and ambition, physical and mental illness, aging and coming of age, and the struggle to make a living. Several stories feature working-class characters and examine how class shapes our psychological reality. 

Amita Basu’s At Play and Other Stories examines the struggles and joys of life for women and girls in contemporary India.