“It’s a shame, really, that non-Bengali readers have little access to the writings of Buddhadeva Bose, one of the greatest poets, essayists and writers in the post-Tagore era . . . Delightful. . . . [With] perfect pitch. . . . Sinha’s beautifully nuanced translation makes it unputdownable.”
—The Financial Express
“That My Kind of Girl – a classic modernist tale of four passengers stranded in a railway-station waiting room at night, recounting stories of lost loves – is engrossing is thanks not only to Sinha’s abilities, but to the quality of Bose’s narrative, which, unlike his earlier, Calcutta-based masterpiece, Tithidore (1949), inhabits a lighter, more Maupassant-like manner instead.”
—Rosinka Chaudhari
“. . . Bose’s charming and chatty prose provides us with tales as entertaining as either of those of its predecessors. . . . My Kind of Girl . . . is another fine addition to Archipelago’s growing impressive list of world literature.”
—Rain Taxi
“The picture of Bengali society . . . [in] the mid-1920s and the Second World War. . . . Charming. . . . Quite appealing.”
—M. A. Orthofer, The Complete Review
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A modern-day Bengali Decameron, My Kind of Girl is a sensitive and vibrant novella containing four disarming accounts of unrequited love. In a railway station one bleak December night, four strangers from different walks of life — a contractor, a government bureaucrat, a writer, and a doctor — face an overnight delay. The sight of a young loving couple prompts them to reflect on and share with each other their own experiences of the vagaries of the human heart in a story cycle that is in turn melancholy, playful, wise, and heart-wrenching. The tales reveal each traveler’s inner landscape and provide an illuminating glimpse into contemporary life in India. Coming out of a great storytelling tradition, My Kind of Girl is a moving and imaginative look at love from one of India’s most celebrated writers.
It's just got the right feel . . . . At once innocent and overwhelmingly passionate, in the manner of first love . . . A novel of delicate ideas and nuances. To capture them with the right touch of lightness couldn't have been easy, yet Sinha does just that.
— Mint (a partner publication of The Wall Street Journal)
Charming . . . Riveting . . . Rich and strange . . . The design is familiar, going back to the great European story-cycles of Boccaccio and Chaucer, but sharpened by that extra edge of sophistication Bose invariably managed to bring into his best work . . . A novel of ideas, a veritable history of emotions that alludes to some of the most profound testimonies of love in world literature.
— The Telegraph
That My Kind of Girl - a classic modernist tale of four passengers stranded in a railway-station waiting room at night, recounting stories of lost loves - is engrossing is thanks not only to Sinha's abilities, but to the quality of Bose's narrative, which, unlike his earlier, Calcutta-based masterpiece, Tithidore (1949), inhabits a lighter, more Maupassant-like manner instead.
— Rosinka Chaudhari
A magical and totally entertaining volume--Sinha has caught Bose's dynamic and unfetted style admirably.
— India Today
Wonderfully decadent. . . . [Written] with consummate mastery. . . . A gem of delight. . . . Bose stokes the embers of the story alive till the last page.
— Indian Express
It's a shame, really, that non-Bengali readers have little access to the writings of Buddhadeva Bose, one of the greatest poets, essayists and writers in the post-Tagore era . . . Delightful. . . . [With] perfect pitch. . . . Sinha's beautifully nuanced translation makes it unputdownable.
— The Financial Express
I couldn't let it go till I'd finished. . . . Beautifully written . . . as alive today as it was back when it was written. . . . The translation is nuanced. . . . This is a book you have to read. And now--while love is still in the air.
— www.trendy.in
Masterful. . . . Superbly translated . . . Bose's remarkable talent of throwing his characters' voices and at the same time inhabiting their skin is on full display in this slim, moving book.
— Hindustan Times
. . . Bose's charming and chatty prose provides us with tales as entertaining as either of those of its predecessors. . . . My Kind of Girl . . . is another fine addition to Archipelago's growing impressive list of world literature.
— Rain Taxi
There is a light-hearted tenderness to My Kind of Girl. At times there is a devoted passion expressed through the characters and in turn the devotion turns to a tender first love.
— The Novel Life
Bose has a more complex understanding of these women than their potential suitors did . . . He shines a light on the type of romantic regret one feels as they get older, even when they still don’t understand what went wrong.
— KGB Bar & Lit Journal
Read an interview with Arunava Sinha on the process of literary translation.
For more of Arunava Sinha’s translations, click here.