Nilofar reviews Ananya Mukherjee’s short story collection, published by Rupa, for Different Truths.

My Rating- 4/5

“Whenever I hear chronicles of love, they all begin with hesitation, then they develop into an act of submission. All these tales end badly and lovers are left with anguish of being apart. Is there such a thing called love, a spiritual craving, that destiny truly supports?”

An Unborn Desire is a collection of short stories of diverse emotions, culture, geography, and era with unpredictable twists that would keep the readers guessing until the end.

The world is formed of people with different and unique stories of their own, belonging to a multitude of traditions stretched over an elongated geographical area. And with that, no two persons share exactly the same thoughts and feelings, co-incidence can be an exception.

This book talks about those incidents which initially looked quite naïve but holds a deeper insight if we are able to connect the dots. Every story is unique and appealing in its own way expressing the unrequited love, faith, fear, disgust, longing and many other such aspects which makes the life going.

The book is categorised into four different themes and a total of 15 stories, with a few of them based on real life incidents. The first chapter is what the book is entitled with. Kiara and Kabir are going to meet her mother, who is a therapist and treating patients through the method of hypnosis and past life regressions. Kabir took a chance merely out of excitement to apply these methods upon him. The revelation had a deeper connection involving Kiara and was shocking beyond expectation.

Short stories are way too good considering the narration, characters, and plots. With just a short span of pages, they will make you wander or provoke the least touched part of your heart and soul. Here, the author has done a commendable job with her short stories in making us glued to the book till the very end.

I admired the vastness in the book. The characters were well sorted and impactful. Beginning every chapter, the narration felt slow, but with progression and the plot twist it was all worth it.  

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Nilofar Yasmin

Nilofar Yasmin has been a book-enthusiast and voracious reader since her early school days. Currently pursuing a research career in Biotechnology; she lets nothing make her compromise her reading time. Any day if you happen to bump into her, you are sure to find her either reading, humming to the tunes of her favourite songs, filling a canvas with her elegant strokes or capturing those little moments of life through her lens.

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