Ferry Crossing : Short Stories From Goa

Twenty-seven engaging stories from the heart of one of India’s youngest states. The great holiday destination of India, Goa has been reduced to an easy caricature by the demands of tourism and advertising: a beautiful land by the sea peopled by a feckless, bohemian race. This anthology introduces us to the true Goa, a place rich in history and tradition where the business of living is as serious and humdrum as it is anywhere else. Included here are the finest short stories from Goa written in Konkani, Marathi, Portuguese and English, all remarkable for their rare freshness, and many marked by sparkling humor and a contagious lightheartedness. The themes vary from the touching naiveté of first love, as in Chandrakant Keni’s ‘Innocence’, to the humiliation of poverty, movingly described in stories like Pundalik Naik’s ‘The Turtle’; from the amusing clash of egos among rural elite, brilliantly narrated in Victor Rangel-Ribeiro’s ‘Senhor Eusebio Builds His Dream House’, to the startling brutality inherent in everyday lives, as seen in Pundalik Naik’s ‘When an Ass Mounts a Cow’ and Damodar Mauzo’s ‘Theresa’s Man’. Simply and lucidly told, the stories in Ferry Crossing reveal a Goa infinitely more human and complex than the stereotypical image of an enormous beach resort.

Twenty-seven engaging stories from the heart of one of India’s youngest states. The great holiday destination of India, Goa has been reduced to an easy caricature by the demands of tourism and advertising: a beautiful land by the sea peopled by a feckless, bohemian race. This anthology introduces us to the true Goa, a place rich in history and tradition where the business of living is as serious and humdrum as it is anywhere else. Included here are the finest short stories from Goa written in Konkani, Marathi, Portuguese and English, all remarkable for their rare freshness, and many marked by sparkling humour and a contagious lightheartedness. The themes vary from the touching naivete of first love, as in Chandrakant Keni’s ‘Innocence’, to the humiliation of poverty, movingly described in stories like Pundalik Naik’s ‘The Turtle’; from the amusing clash of egos among rural elite, brilliantly narrated in Victor Rangel-Ribeiro’s ‘Senhor Eusebio Builds His Dream House’, to the startling brutality inherent in everyday lives, as seen in Pundalik Naik’s ‘When an Ass Mounts a Cow’ and Damodar Mauzo’s ‘Theresa’s Man’. Simply and lucidly told, the stories in Ferry Crossing reveal a Goa infinitely more human and complex than the stereotypical image of an enormous beach resort.

English