Boner Manush Manusher Bon by Sadia Mahjabin Imam [Hardcover]

Kalabgir’s Chhoto Bahadur sometimes disappears on his own. Then he returns again, saying he cannot stay away from the call of the forest. While searching for a boatman in Senhati, I once saw a boat lying stranded like a dead sea turtle on the dry bed of the Bhairab River, face up toward the sky—but the boatman was nowhere to be found. One night, crossing layers of mist, he had taken me to an unknown village. In Khuriyakhali, even after Russell released the bird from its cage, it came and perched beside him before flying off into the forest. Kartik Pramanik from the village of Angtihara in Koyra melted into the crowd after the storm. In searching for him, I found the trail of Bonbibi Johuranama. This book is about the Sundarbans—its sounds of water, the call of the forest, the rhythm of the local dialect, the reflection of moonlight in midnight solitude, the festive fish harvests in the vast salty mudflats, and the faith of poor forest dwellers making vows to Bonbibi at a hidden, ruined shrine deep within the woods.