Kali Sunset

In India, dusk is the most holy hour. Colors fade, cows return from grazing fields, village fires ignite, while dim yellow lights of a city flicker against approaching night. Many pause to pray at this hour, to reflect upon the day. Kali Sunset is a novel about an elderly Bengali woman, a grandmother, named Mrs. Sona Choudhury. She is living out her last days in a Kolkata, India apartment. Sensing the approach of death, Mrs. Choudhury considers the milestones of her life: a teenage romance with the boatman Taro, her sister Bel’s wedding during the Great Bengal Famine, the assimilation of her bitter in-laws after the 1947 Partition, the arranged marriage of her brilliant daughter Meera, and the burial of her rebellious youngest sister Rani. Through these reflections, Mrs. Choudhury searches for fundamental truths of Hinduism and motherhood. Personal doubts challenge Mrs. Choudhury, as night falls upon the landscape of India.