The Postmaster

A new postmaster arrives in a small village and finds the days quiet and dull, until an unlikely friendship changes everything. He teaches a young orphaned girl to read and write, and in doing so awakens in her a longing for a different life. As their bond deepens, both must confront a difficult question: can a friendship between two such different worlds truly last? This is one of eighteen hand-picked stories in the collection, originally written in Bengali and carefully retold in English, moving between love, sadness, happiness and longing while offering a glimpse into the social customs and beliefs of an earlier India.