Darkness

Bharati Mukherjee was born in Calcutta in 1940. She lived in a house crowded with relatives until she was eight, when her father's career brought the family to live in London for several years. Her best-known novels include Jasmine, Desirable Daughters, and The Tree Bride. She was also the winner of the 1988 National Book Critics Circle Award for The Middleman and Other Stories. Ms. Mukherjee died in 2017.Clark Blaise is a Canadian-American author of The Meagre Tarmac and other novels and story collections. He was the husband of Bharati Mukherjee.

• Darkness includes the stories “Angela,” “The Lady from Lucknow,” “The World According to Hsü,” “A Father,” “Isolated Incidents,” “Nostalgia,” “Tamurlane,” “Hindus,” “Saints,” “Visitors,” “The Imaginary Assassin,” and “Courtly Vision.”

Praise for Bharati Mukherjee and Darkness“Compassionate and eloquent...Darkness is a great gift to readers.”—Publishers Weekly “I was in awe of her short stories and her articulate intelligence. What a light in the literary world she was. Such ​talent, beauty, charm, grace, kindness and calm, a voice of reason—and indignation when it was warranted.”—Amy Tan, author of Where the Past Begins “Mukherjee writes in laser-sharp language . . . For readers, writers, immigrants, patriots, and expatriates the world over, Darkness is a study in excellence of a short story’s highest achievement.” —New York Journal of Books “These powerful stories have been written with such delicacy. People are displaced, deceived, sometimes disoriented, though in their perseverance, and their inherent dignity, they’re rarely defeated. I’ve long admired Bharati Mukhergee’s stories. Reading these, I was reminded of what a sensuous and tactile writer she is, how willingly she brushes up against the clashing textures of the world.”—Ann Beattie, author of A Wonderful Stroke of Luck “While you’re still chuckling over the sneaky humor hidden in exquisitely chosen details, Bharati Mukherjee hits you over the head. And oh my, the blow is always so well-timed. I marvel at the timing, the insight, and the poignance of these stories.”—Lois Lowry, author of The Giver “The stories of Bharati Mukherjee are once again—and rightfully so—part of the contemporary literary conversation, posing the questions that continue to shape the American identity. What’s gained and lost in the act of immigration? Which selves are shed and kept and made anew? Few writers have explored the mutual transformation of America and its immigrants with such complexity, wisdom, and heart. Her work has always been vital; now, with the re-issue of Darkness, a new generation of readers will come to know Bharati Mukherjee, one of our great American writers.”—Lysley Tenorio, author of The Son of Good Fortune “Bharati Mukherjee’s pitch-perfect stories recalibrate our notion of immigrant literature. These vibrant and ferocious stories paved the way for writing about the Indian-American experience. Mukherjee wrote not from the margins, but from the center, chronicling our nation of immigrants and their narratives. She was the groundbreaking Indian-American writer who led the way for so many other writers to tell their stories, to feel seen. Her storytelling is a revelation, and her intricately crafted stories speak to the universal, to our human frailties. No one tells the diasporic story like she does.—Nina Swamidoss McConigley, author of Cowboys and East Indians "These beautiful, tough-minded stories were way ahead of the curve that has led to the recent emergence of literature of the Asian diaspora in North America. Bharati Mukherjee saw then crucial, self-defining, morally complex differences between immigration, expatriation and assimilation that we’re only beginning to perceive now, forty years later. The stories are prophetic. And as literary art, they are like shards of glass. Read them with care, for they will cut you.”—Russell Banks, author of Foregone “Bharati Mukherjee is writing achingly compassionate, ravishingly beautiful, absolutely essential books.”—Robert Olen Butler, author of Late City “Her prose fiction is masterful, giving us a perspective on a singular life imagined with impeccable care and judgment.”—Joyce Carol Oates, author of Babysitter “Mukherjee has emerged as an exemplary author.”—Washington Post “With the uncanny third eye of the artist, Mukherjee forces us to see our country anew.”—USA Today “Mukherjee writes with beautiful precision . . . neatly needlepointing a malevolent world.”—Village Voice