The City of Widows & Other Stories

By Mangala Gouri

Skeletal women lay supine against the walls, their blank eyes the only sign that they were still alive. Others harangued the tourists, begging for a rupee, a half kilo of flour, to keep body and soul together. This is not a nightmare from Africa, but Vrindavan, just 150 km from New Delhi, capital of India. Their harrowing tales, told in the first chapter, "The City of Widows" are an indictment of a nation, which prides itself on being the largest democracy of the twenty-first century.The other fourteen stories range from a woman run out of her land accused of witchcraft, a student sexually exploited by her teacher, a wife made to walk on fire to prove her chastity, to a woman gulled into selling her bones, to a tribal woman who survived an exorcism to become a Christian to a case of honour killing, where a young couple is hacked to death for daring to love, and marry.The stories are based on true experiences and offer a kaleidoscopic view of the life of women in India.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 149748264X
• ISBN13: 9781497482647
• Release Date: April 2014
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 369 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.0"