rasanthi Ram’s debut work of fiction, , is not a short story collection. It is instead a short story —a far less commonly seen format where individual stories connect with and build upon one another, woven together by an overarching narrative which gets incrementally richer from start to finish. In a sense, a short story cycle is greater than the sum of its parts—and so are the Srinivasans, the Tamil Brahmin nuclear family at the. Through their distinctive voices (and a host of related characters who sprout from one another), Ram traces the intricate dynamics that shape a family through generations, evoking tender nostalgia and painful awakening all at once.
