AN UNBORN DESIRE

The Unborn Desire’ was a beautiful, thought-provoking collection of short stories that offered a unique perspective on the situations of each layered character. The stories were unconventional and touching enough to make me want to read the book over and over again.

The author maybe a successful professional but I found the stories too much shallow. The ideas lack clarity, there is too much confusion in the narration. The words may be literally superb but it's hard to pick up the thoughts behind the creation. I feel the author is a bit too immature to start writing. The truths of life has to further sink in deeper so that there is more clarity and simplicity of thoughts. More reflection needs to happen before writing about the truths of life. I left the book midway.

An unborn desire is a collection of intriguing short stories by Ananya Mukherjee. The stories are diverse and are told magnificently. I extremely liked that the stories were on different topics, places and aspects of life. They were not only gripping but also gave information about the same. The title got me from the time I set my eyes on it and the cover is complementing it so well. The characters in some stories are formulated fluently and I felt I know them. It was a great read. Pick it up for sinking into the diverse culture, places and people.

An Unborn Desire is a beautiful collection of short stories told in various perspectives and unique narratives. Each story was subtle and had immense depth. I enjoyed how the topics were myriad, and each character was unique to another. There was no repetitiveness, which was great and made the stories stand out.Human emotions, once bound in strange circumstances can turn into something magnificent and this book was proof to just that.The twists were really interesting and they were the ones I was always looking forward to. The whole experience after reading this book was wholesome and I would definitely look out for more of her works in the future.

Started reading it last evening and finished it by this afternoon. A delightful collection of short stories .....ranging from Nefertiti and Noor Jahan to even the present pandemic , vivid descriptions of beautiful places around the world ,interspersed with few lines of the bengali language (even the bangal dialect of Bangladesh), interesting twists in the ends ......a wonderful read. Waiting for your next Ananya Mukherjee .

This book has an attractive cover. It’s a collection of short stories thag are diverse in nature. I will summarise two of them trying to avoid spoilers to give you idea about the book. One of my favourite stories is first one that is “An unborn desire” Kiara and Kabir are the protagonist. They are a couple travelling to Singapore from London. Kiara had business conference and Kabir was taking break and accompanying her. They were the guests of Kiara’s mom Sonia. Who lives there alone after her husband’s death and she is a therapist by profession. Over dinner, they had intense discussions about therapy sessions and ended up performing an exercise on Kabir. The end of the story is amazing and unexpected. I liked how author has correlated starting and ending paragraphs. That was indeed an amazing job. The next story I liked is from an different era. The place is Fatehpur Sikri. Salim saw ‘Sharf Un Nisa’ for the first time and smitten by her beauty. He inquired about her and she was called Nadira by her father. Akbar learnt about the private life of his prince Salim and summoned him. She was an accomplished singer and dancer. Salim and Anarkali ( Nadira loved calling herself by this name) were in love already. And rest of the story you can predict or read. I loved the diversity of the book. Author has chosen amazing stories. They are written wonderfully. I enjoyed reading them a lot.

I finally got my teeth into this book. And she takes me on a journey between the mystical music in Marrakesh to the edge of a continent where a secret is revealed; from the haunting eyes of long forgotten war victims in Singapore to finding true love in ghostly Mauritius; from God’s own reckoning to the masks we all carry. An Unborn Desire is a must read- not because it’s what one must politely say about a writer’s work in a review, but because I want everyone to enjoy these haunting stories. My absolute favourite passage from the book should give you a glimpse into Ananya Mukherjee ‘s genius storytelling:‘All the masks that were so alive last night are silent now. It is as if they have lost their tongues, or like they had never spoken.I began to gather myself up, unable to comprehend if I was awake or dreaming last night when my eyes fall on a soft brown piece of a fine fabric. I reach out and pick it up.No, wait!It is not plain fabric; it feels like peeled off skin … and it has the imprint of a nose, a lip and two hollows of the eyes.Is it mine?’Ananya truly is a ‘curator of fragile moments’.

Twists, turns, surprises, change of pace all done with subtle strokes and deft touches....breathtaking array of ideas and backdrops..refreshing variety and masterly use of her rich vocabulary...Unborn Desire is a must read from a great storyteller

Loved all the stories and the details each one of them had. Could actually visualize them. Will recommend to all.