Darkness

Twelve stories of immigrants who navigate the ancestral past of India as they remake their lives—and themselves—in North America. These are stories of fluid and broken identities, discarded languages and deities, and the attempt to create bonds with a new community against the ever-present fear of failure and betrayal.

“The narrative of immigration,” Bharati Mukherjee once wrote, “is the epic narrative of this millennium.” Her stories and novels brilliantly add to that ongoing saga. In the story “The Lady from Lucknow,” a woman is pushed to the limit while wanting nothing more than to fit in. In “Hindus,” characters discover that breaking away from a culture has deep and unexpected costs. In “A Father,” the clash of cultures leads a man to an act of terrible violence. “How could he tell these bright, mocking women,” Mukherjee writes, “that in the darkness, he sensed invisible presences: gods and snakes frolicked in the master bedroom, little white sparks of cosmic static crackled up the legs of his pajamas. Something was out there in the dark, something that could invent accidents and coincidences to remind mortals that even in Detroit they were no more than mortal.”

There is light in these stories as well. The collection’s closing story, “Courtly Vision,” brings to life the world within a Mughal miniature painting and describes a light charged with excitement to discover the immense intimacy of darkness. Readers will also discover that excitement, and the many gradations of darkness and light, throughout these pages from the mind of a master storyteller. 

This book is part of Godine's Nonpareil series and includes an afterword by Clark Blaise.

Praise for Darkness

“Compassionate and eloquent...Darkness is a great gift to readers.” —Publishers Weekly

“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