Tomb Of Sand (Ret Samadhi)

An 80-year-old woman slips into a deep depression at the death of her husband & then resurfaces to gain a new lease on life. Her determination to fly in the face of convention – including striking up a friendship with a hijra (trans) woman – confuses her bohemian daughter, who is used to thinking of herself as the more 'modern' of the two.  At the older woman's insistence, they travel back to Pakistan, simultaneously confronting the unresolved trauma of her teenage experiences of Partition, & re-evaluating what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman, & a feminist.

Rather than respond to tragedy with seriousness, Geetanjali Shree's playful tone & exuberant wordplay results in a book that is engaging, funny, & utterly original, at the same time as being an urgent & timely protest against the destructive impact of borders & boundaries, whether between religions, countries, or genders.,

"This is a luminous novel of India & partition, but one whose spellbinding brio & fierce compassion weaves youth & age, male & female, family & nation into a kaleidoscopic whole." - Frank Wynne, Chair of the Booker Prize judges

Author of five novels & several story collections, Geetanjali Shree’s work has been translated into English, French, German, Serbian & Korean. She is the winner of the 2022 International Booker Prize & has received numerous accolades.

Daisy Rockwell is a painter, writer & translator living in the US. She has translated a number of classic works of Hindi & Urdu literature, including Upendranath Ashk's Falling Walls, Bhisham Sahni's Tamas, & Khadija Mastur's The Women's Courtyard. Her 2019 translation of Krishna Sobti's A Gujarat Here, a Gujarat There was awarded the Modern Language Association’s Aldo & Jeanne Scaglione Translation Prize. She is the winner of the 2022 International Booker Prize.