TANUSHREE GHOSH (Tanu)
BLURBS
From An-Other Land begins with a story about that most mundane of experiences—waiting on line at the airport. Yet in Ghosh’s hands, this simple story becomes a gripping narrative about what it means to leave India and go to the United States. This collection is filled with intimate and authentic moments of love and tenderness and betrayal and heartbreak, and throughout it all Ghosh writes with great sympathy for her characters. A fascinating read.
Susan Breen, author of the Maggie Dove mystery series and The Fiction Class
Tanushree Ghosh’s From An-Other Land unabashedly challenges our notions of personal and cultural identity, with characters who seek to define themselves in an intercultural setting that is less and less sure of itself. Ghosh isn’t afraid to poke her characters with a stick to see what they’re truly made of. From a family man who succumbs to the forbidden temptations of white-water rafting, to a woman torn between preservation of self and the confines of old-world traditions, to a pair of lovers thwarted by cultural divides, Ghosh’s stories are alternatingly hilarious and heartbreaking—and undeniably relevant.
Laurel Leigh, author of the blog Dear Writers
The Line – a very vivid description of people in the line! One can almost visualize them. I think the way you add a little extra about the persons you describe make this a story that stays in the mind. Meera – “The snowflakes reminded her of raindrops, but they were softer, less intruding, like everyone and everything else here.” A significant statement. An interesting story, very difficult to guess the ending of. Tarun and Michelle: Poignant and heartbreaking... “The same night that had convinced Tarun of his desire to spend his life with her, had convinced her of the need to leave him.” This story is akin to the O Henry/ Maupassant twist in the tale style. Raji and the House: Trapped in the trappings of America... a poignant story almost frightening in its reality. One can almost visualize many cases in which America sucks people into its entirety, whether they like it or not.
Deepti Menon, author of Shadow in the Mirror and Birds of Prey
A couple emigrates from the Punjab in India to New York in the US; only, the eponymous protagonist has married her brother-in-law to make this bizarre act of migration possible. Based on this intriguing premise, this poignant story is as much a tale of lost innocence as one of new-found resilience in accomplishing the rites of passage to a new world.
Usha K.R., Author Sojourn, The Chosen, A Girl and a River and Monkey-man
In Meera, you successfully create suspense. The plot unfolds slowly as the story progresses. The readers wonder who’s who and what bring the characters into the situation you open the story with. Thus, you keep the reader grabbed until the end….. I think you captured in your story the reality of the fleeting dreams of the immigrants and the price to be paid for pursuing “a better life.” And the question of whether it is a better life and in what ways.
Rana Bitar, Poet, Author, Dreams of the Beginning
The stories were enjoyable to read! In their construction they were excellent – you used details and actions to construct a mood, and had excellent control of revealing facts. So the dynamics of staging actions was excellent. In The Chinese Lady the gradual revelation that the narrator was from India was well staged, and so was the return to the Gym and her obsession. A difficulty is the revelation that there was husband in the last sentence. I think the narrator’s separation from her husband could have been visible even if his existence was alluded to earlier. But for that to come at the end was a jarring note.
Roald Hoffman, Chemistry Noble Laureate, Poet
Your stories are beautifully inspirational, poetic, with just a tear-drop of sadness glistening in the background.
Brooke Warner, Author, Publisher, Founder – She Writes Press
EVENTS
Are we ourselves binding ourselves in narrow boundaries causing the rise of intolerant nationalism? - From Another Land Kolkata Launch
Is immigration Ambition? Identification? or Desperation? - From Another Land Kolkata Launch
Why do we read books? Reading this book makes you understand a different world - From Another Land Chandigarh Launch
We seem to be re-setting to a default setting which is roughly pre-second world war... - From Another Land Kolkata Launch
With all these strong men coming into power all across the world, this seems to be the hard nationalism pre-second world war which led to second world war - From Another Land Kolkata Launch
50 years or so of the welfare state, women's right, civil rights, then world war as an aberration...maybe this is that point again in the natural cycle - From Another Land Kolkata Launch
London Curry house is facing a crisis owing to lack of curry chefs post Brexit! - From Another Land Kolkata Launch
Brexit - almost an example of a nation working itself into a mess in a bit of an absent-mindedness. No one really seems to have put their mind too much into it - From Another Land Kolkata Launch