Kabita Sangraha 1 by Joy Goswami [Hardcover]

Is Jochhanakumari really a witch, around whom strange tales are spread from one end to the other of the border village of Garbandipur? Is Jochhanakumari a woman with a dual identity, a real-life young woman who is both Veena and Fatima, a Hindu and a Muslim at once? Is Jochhanakumari an imaginary heroine in the songs of the poets, the one whose name inspires the ballads of the lover-poet, and whose songs bring tears to the eyes when sung? Is Jochhanakumari truly Jochhanakumari? A being created from illusion, whose body no one can touch or catch? Sometimes she descends among humans to test their affection, compassion, and love, only to return with tears in her eyes every time?

In the backdrop of a village on the border of the two Bengals, the creator of Purba-Paschim (East-West) tells the extraordinary life story of Jochhanakumari. Sunil Gangopadhyay, in this touching novel, once again reveals that human-made maps are artificial, that the laughter, tears, desires, and greed of the people of both Bengals are the same, and that the unbroken flow of life spreads across the two ends of the border, connected by the same thread.