Indian Tango — Ananda Devi

Translated from the French by Jean Anderson, INDIAN TANGO, published in French in 2007, is set in Delhi in 2004, against a background of monsoon rains and the general election that would see Sonia Gandhi briefly head a coalition government. A visiting writer becomes obsessed by Subhadra, a woman glimpsed on the street, and as this unconventional relationship develops, the cost of pursuing passion and desire in a vibrant but deeply conservative society comes into sharp focus. A sometimes bitter, always moving meditation on the limitations placed on women's (and others') lives by convention builds inexorably to a powerful and stunning conclusion.