What began as Monish Ranjan Chatterjee’s
project to translate ‘The Adolescent Bride’
(‘Balika Badhu’) by Bimal Kar,
later became an anthology of Bengali short stories. Balika Badhu: A representative anthology of Bengali short stories spans
just over 300 pages. But while it is very cohesive, it is not quite representative.
Chatterjee says so much in the introduction. Although all the pieces are well
paced and the writers well known in the West Bengal, no woman writer was
included. This is an imperfection that the translator points out almost
immediately, but regardless, this anthology is certainly worth reading.
