Very often, the most interesting stories are those that are not told. They need to be felt, heard with the heart and mind, deciphered from between the lines. Saudade, in essence, is a collection of 9 short stories centred around the lives of people from different walks of life, shaped by circumstance and traditional conformance.
These tales are subtle, but can change the way the story ends. As with Che Guevera’s Legacy, where a young boy is forced to come to terms with the reality of political idealism. In The Inscrutable Case of a Lilac Saree, Zuhara Ammaye, bogged down by the loneliness of old age, struggles with the reality of her predicament. The shocking tale of sexual abuse of a young boy in My Name is Arif Mushtaq and I am Gay, where happiness is finally found and yet horrifically lost. Or the paranormal powers of a young woman in Beevitha and the mysterious events that unfold.
All the stories are set in Kerala, imbuing the Islamic culture and way of life of the region with the subtle use of language, an understanding of local politics and a sensitivity to tradition.
Husna is a writer, poet and freelance content strategist. She is a dentist by profession, with a journalism degree. She abandoned a lucrative career to follow her dream of being a full time writer. Her first book, My Lyrical Symphony, an anthology of eclectic poems, was published in 2008. Husna currently resides in the picturesque coastal town of Cochin, Kerala, in southern India.
