Galpamala 6 by Narendra Nath Mitra [Hardcover]

Short stories are the pride of Bengali literature. Narendra Nath Mitra is the pride of Bengali short stories. Abu Sayeed Ayub identified one of his stories as having ‘ascended to the ranks of the world’s greatest long stories.’ Contemporary storyteller Santosh Kumar Ghosh placed him in ‘the intimate circle of Maupassant, O. Henry, Chekhov, or Rabindranath.’ According to the well-thought-out opinion of Amlan Dutta, it is impossible to imagine our daily lives without Narendra Nath. He teaches us how to live. In fact, Narendra Nath Mitra’s place in Bengali short stories was firmly established long ago. From the very beginning of his writing career, he stood out with his unique brilliance. Over four decades, he wrote nearly five hundred stories. Those stories depict contemporary life in an eternally relevant manner.

Unfortunately, Narendra Nath’s story collections have been rare for a long time. Many of his unpublished stories also remain scattered. Yet, devoted readers, researchers, and filmmakers constantly seek out his various stories. Keeping their demand in mind, volumes of Golpomala have been published, each containing fifty of his stories of varying lengths. Five volumes have already been released. In this sixth volume as well, fifty nearly-lost yet unforgettable characteristic stories have been included—stories that solidified Narendra Nath’s reputation as a master storyteller and through which his immense value is recognized.

Another significant inclusion in this collection, instead of a conventional preface, is one of Narendra Nath’s own writings: Sukh-Dukher Kotha (Tales of Joy and Sorrow). Like the first five volumes, the stories in this volume are arranged chronologically according to their time of writing. Each story includes a note on its period of composition, along with references to the newspapers or magazines where they were first published. Additionally, the editor, Abhijit Mitra, has included some relevant insights regarding the compiled stories in his introduction.