From the Booker Prize–winning novelist and screenwriter of Howard’s End: “Cinematic” and “exquisite” stories of longing, loss, and redemption (Publishers Weekly). In this expansive story collection, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, author of Heat and Dust and the screenplays for The Remains of the Day and A Room with a View, continues her lifelong meditation on East and West. Set in India, England, and New York City, A Lovesong for India reveals what unites us across oceans, cultures, and lifetimes. In “Innocence,” an older couple, whose social standing is marred by a decades–old scandal, rent out rooms in their Delhi home for both companionship and income. The couple becomes deeply invested in the lives of their two tenants, but with the addition of a third renter—a beautiful and provocative woman from India—tensions in the household push the story to its feverish conclusion. “Talent” finds Jhabvala in New York City reflecting on the friction between family and societal expectations. Magda is a talent scout whose work is her entire life until she meets Ellie, a singer whose immense ability and unguarded personality captivate Magda. Soon Ellie is integrated into Magda’s extended family—for better or worse. This remarkable collection is the hallmark of Jhabvala’s celebrated career and a testament to her “balance, subtlety, wry humor, and beauty” (The New York Times).

"Music enveloped the Indian's individual and social life like an atmosphere."-Alice C. Fletcher. Anthropologist Alice C. Fletcher (1838-1923) was a pioneer in the study of Indian music. Originally published in 1900, Indian Story and Song from North America came out of her fieldwork and friendship with the Omahas (among whom she lived), Poncas, Arapahoes, and other tribes. Fletcher provides the stories behind these songs and the scores for authentic Indian melodies in native language (which is also translated into English). They run the gamut of experience, from making war to making love. Fletcher writes: "Universal use of music was because of the belief that it was a medium of communication between man and the unseen. The invisible voice could reach the invisible power that permeates all nature, animating all natural forms. As success depended upon help from this mysterious power, in every avocation, in every undertaking, and in every ceremonial, the Indian appealed to this power through song." When hunting, he sang to insure the aid of the unseen power in capturing game. When confronting danger and death, he sang for strength to meet his fate unflinchingly. In using herbs to heal, the men and women sang to bring the required efficacy. When planting they sang for abundant harvest. In their sports, courtship, and mourning, song increased pleasure and comforted sorrow. All occasions for singing are covered in this volume. The achievement of Alice Fletcher is discussed in an introduction by Helen Myers, associate professor of music at Trinity College and ethnomusicology editor of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

Love is a many-flavoured thing: it can go from vanilla to rainbow sprinkles in the blink of an eye. Four years ago, Maahis heart was broken into so many pieces that it looked like she might never put it back together again. Yet time has healed her wounds, and she has found her true calling - and even a dash or romance. But when the past comes knocking on her door, threatening to shatter a life she has carefully rebuilt, her world is turned upside-down. What will Maahi do when she is torn between her head and her heart? Emotionally charged and vivid, Like a Love Song is about the sort of love that consumes and sears you ... and the healing powers of true passion. , threatening to shatter a life she has carefully rebuilt, her world is turned upside-down. What will Maahi do when she is torn between her head and her heart?

A wonderful collection of poetry, written by Indian poet and activist Sarojini Naidu, connected through the single theme of India. Highly recommended for poetry loves with an interest in the subcontinent. Contents include: “Palanquin Bearers”, “Indian Weavers”, “Coromandel Fishers”, “The Snake-Charmer”, “Village-Song”, “In Praise Of Henna”, “Harvest Hymn”, “Indian Love-Song”, “Cradle-Song”, “Alabaster”, etc. Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949) was an Indian political activist and poet. She was a staunch proponent of women's emancipation, civil rights, and anti-imperialistic ideas, playing an important role in India's struggle for independence from colonial rule. Her work as a poet includes both children's poems and others with more mature themes including patriotism, romance, and tragedy, earning her the sobriquet “Nightingale of India”. Her most famous work is "In the Bazaars of Hyderabad" (1912), which remains widely read to this day. Other notable works by this author include: “The Bird of Time: Songs of Life, Death & the Spring” (1912), “The Broken Wing - Songs of Love, Death & Destiny" (1917), and “Muhammad Jinnah: An Ambassador of Unity” (1919). Read & Co. is publishing this brand new poetry collection complete with an introduction by Edmund Gosse.

First published in 1943, “The Sceptred Flute Songs of India” contains the complete poetical works of Indian poet and activist Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949). Naidu (1879–1949) was an Indian political activist and poet. She was a staunch proponent of women's emancipation, civil rights, and anti-imperialistic ideas, playing an important role in India's struggle for independence from colonial rule. Her work as a poet includes both children's poems and others with more mature themes including patriotism, romance, and tragedy, earning her the sobriquet “Nightingale of India”. Her most famous work is "In the Bazaars of Hyderabad" (1912), which remains widely read to this day. Contents include: “The Golden Threshold”, “Folk Songs”, “Songs for Music”, “Poems”, “The Bird of Time”, “Songs of Love and Death”, “Songs of the Springtime”, “Indian Folk-songs to Indian Tunes”, “Songs of Life”, etc. A fantastic collection not to be missed by fans of Naidu's seminal work. Other notable works by this author include: “Songs of Nature” and “Muhammad Jinnah: An Ambassador of Unity” (1919). This classic work is being republished now in a new edition complete with an introductory chapter from 'Studies of Contemporary Poets' by Mary C. Sturgeon.

A vibrant novel from Booker Prize winner Penelope Lively—a wry, wise story about the surprising ways lives intersect When Charlotte Rainsford, a retired schoolteacher, is accosted by a petty thief on a London street, the consequences ripple across the lives of acquaintances and strangers alike. A marriage unravels after an illicit love affair is revealed through an errant cell phone message; a posh yet financially strapped interior designer meets a business partner who might prove too good to be true; an old-guard historian tries to recapture his youthful vigor with an ill-conceived idea for a TV miniseries; and a middle-aged central European immigrant learns to speak English and reinvents his life with the assistance of some new friends. In this engaging, utterly absorbing and brilliantly told novel, Penelope Lively shows us how one random event can cause marriages to fracture and heal themselves, opportunities to appear and disappear, lovers who might never have met to find each other and entire lives to become irrevocably changed. Funny, humane, touching, sly and sympathetic, How It All Began is a brilliant sleight of hand from an author at the top of her game.

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According to the Kama Sutra, the erotic handbook written two thousand years ago, when the wheel of ecstasy is in motion “there is no textbook at all, and no order.” Indian Love Poems is a unique gathering of poems from across more than two and a half millennia that attempts to catalog the disordered ecstasies of love, ranging from the Kama Sutra and earlier works up to present-day India and the poets of the Indian diaspora. Indian Love Poems features works from the classical languages of Sanskrit and Tamil and such later languages as Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam, Bengali, and English. Emerging from many Indian cultures and eras, the poems collected here reflect a variety of erotic and spiritual passions, and celebrate the powerful role of desire–both male and female–in the intricate dance of existence. From the twelfth-century female poet Mahadeviyakka to the twentieth-century Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore to such contemporary poets as Kamala Das and Vikram Seth, this glittering tapestry of lyric voices beautifully and sensually evokes the transfiguring force of love.