Desi (South Asian) Books
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Sign up todayWhite Dancing Elephants
Stories
Narrator
Priya Ayyar
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Length
6 hours 54 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“Bhuvaneswar's short stories beautifully share the lives of sixteen different women. WHITE DANCING ELEPHANTS explores issues of immigration, religion, and feminism, but what it does best it let you peer inside each woman's soul. This is a brilliant debut.”
— Rachel • Avid Bookshop
A woman grieves a miscarriage, haunted by the Buddha’s birth. An artist with schizophrenia tries to survive hatred and indifference in small-town India by turning to the beauty of sculpture and dance. Orphans in India get pulled into a strange “rescue” mission aimed at stripping their mysterious powers. A brief but intense affair between two women culminates in regret and betrayal. A boy seeks memories of his sister in the legend of a woman who weds death. And fragments of history, from child brickmakers to slaves in Renaissance Portugal, are held up in brief fictions, burnished, made dazzling and unforgettable.
In sixteen remarkable stories, Chaya Bhuvaneswar spotlights diverse women of color―cunning, bold, and resolute―facing sexual harassment and racial violence, and occasionally inflicting that violence on each other. Winner of the 2017 Dzanc Short Story Collection Prize, White Dancing Elephants marks the emergence of a new and original voice in fiction and explores feminist, queer, religious, and immigrant stories with precision, drama, and compassion.
Chaya Bhuvaneswar is a practicing physician and writer whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in Narrative magazine, Electric Literature, the Rumpus, and elsewhere, with poetry in Indolent Books/ What Rough Beast, Quiddity, Natural Bridge, Ithaca Lit, apt magazine, and Hobart. She is a MacDowell Colony fellow and received scholarships to the Muse & Marketplace and Squaw Valley Writers Workshop. Her work has received several Pushcart Prize anthology nominations.
Priya Ayyar is an audiobook narrator, actor, and writer with a BFA and MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her acting credits for television and film include Law & Order: Criminal Intent, All My Children, and the documentary The Children of War. She has appeared on stage in War of the Unheard, Aminta, and The Road Home, and she has written and performed in the plays Karmic Fusion and Losing Remote Control.
Reviews
“Bhuvaneswar’s debut collection maps with great assurance the intricate outer reaches of the human heart…An elegant story collection to read and savor.”
“The seventeen stories in this debut collection take place around the world, exploring queer and interracial love, extramarital affairs, and grief over the disappearances of loved ones…An exuberant collection.”
“Bhuvaneswar tackles the intricate interactions of race, class, and sexuality in this enticing debut…Sharp and provocative, and Bhuvaneswar’s voice rings true.”
“Although affecting throughout, Ayyar is keenly enhancing when voicing the stories of women in conflict…Ayyar’s resonating performance further amplifies Bhuvaneswar’s urgent words with astute empathy.”
“Narrator Priya Ayyar is a steady guide for this collection of literary short stories. She helps listeners explore a variety of characters and diverse settings that range from South Asia to Portugal. Her narration is steady and serene…She soothes even as she delivers the difficult circumstances of the characters’ lives.”
“The stories remain firmly grounded in physical detail, boldly exploring moments of oppression and violence, and Bhuvaneswar’s persuasive, readable style will keep readers absorbed. A strong collection from a writer on the rise.”
“Bhuvaneswar’s seventeen tales give voice to a variety of characters, sorrows, and experiences, constituting a striking collection.”
“Takes on important topics like racialized violence and violence against women—that which is committed against them and they which they commit themselves. Friendship, romance, and family are the ties that bind in this forthcoming collection.”
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