Jochonakumari by Sunil Gangopadhyay [Hardcover]

Is Jochhankumari truly a witch, around whom strange stories are spread from one end to the other in the border village of Gorbandipur? Is Jochhankumari a young woman with dual identities, being both a Veena and a Fatima, both a Hindu and a Muslim? Is Jochhankumari a fictional heroine of poetic songs, celebrated by lovers and poets, who weeps when listening to the songs composed in her name? Is Jochhankumari really a Jochhankumari, a being crafted from illusion, whom no one can truly touch or grasp? Sometimes she descends among people to test their affection, compassion, and love, and each time she returns with tears in her eyes?

Against the backdrop of a border village in Bengal, the creator of "Purba-Paschim" narrates an extraordinary life story. Sunil Gangopadhyay once again highlights through this poignant novel how artificial human-made maps are, how the laughter, tears, desires, and greed of people across the two Bengals are similar, and how the continuous flow of life is spread across both ends of the straw-marked boundaries.