Truth/Untruth

By Mahasweta Devi

A trenchant, darkly humorous, and unsentimental look at Calcutta society.

Set in Calcutta in the mid-1980s, Truth/Untruth is a fast-paced thriller built around the death of the pregnant Jamuna--a maid in a newly affluent residential apartment complex--and Arjun, the upwardly mobile businessman who seduced her. Packed with a cast of colorful characters, this novel is a trenchant, darkly humorous, and unsentimental look at the different segments of Calcutta society: from the middle-class culture vultures to the unscrupulous "promoter" class and the domestic helpers and slum goons who form an intrinsic part of the city's life. All are implicated in a complex web of guilt and bizarre twists and turns. Sex, lies, death--the great modernist themes--run like a thread through this book, exposing societal greed, lust, corruption, and moral hypocrisy with a sardonic tone that spares none. An unusual novel by an author who is otherwise known for her hard-hitting activist-feminist stories, Truth/Untruth underlines the exploitative vicious cycle that defines urban relations between the haves and have-nots.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1803090774
• ISBN13: 9781803090771
• Release Date: June 2023
• Publisher: Seagull Books
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.4" x 9.3"