Mansion
Description
'A key figure in Hindi literature' Guardian
Magnificent in scope and intensely moving, Mansion spans the long years between the fall of the Khalsa regime and the turbulence of the British Raj. Innumerable characters populate these pages: from the wily Diwan Dhanpat Rai to the idealistic Lekhraj; from innocent Rukmo to outspoken Bhagsuddhi. Men and women shape their worlds, lose their grip and footholds, and become adrift in the fierce vortices of unforeseen events. But for the Diwan's mansion itself, each event is only a passing moment in the town's colourful history.
Ambitious and elegant, Mansion is a gripping tale about power: its arrogance and spectacle, and the many claimants and renouncers who desire or fear it.
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Person
Bhisham Sahni (1915-2003) was an iconic writer who transformed the landscape of Hindi literature. His oeuvre encompassed novels, plays, short stories and essays. Tamas, his best known novel, won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1975 and was subsequently adapted into a National Award-winning film by Govind Nihalani. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1998, and the Shlaka Award, the Delhi government's highest literary prize, in 1999.
SHVETA SARDA is the translator of Trickster City (Bahurupiya Shehr) by Azra Tabassum et al. (Penguin Books India, New Delhi, 2010), co-editor of Cybermohalla Hub (Sternberg Press, Berlin, 2012), and editor of With an Untimely Calendar (National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, 2014). Between 2001 and 2013, during her time at Delhi's creative adventure called Sarai, she worked with writers and practitioners in working-class neighbourhoods across the city.