This Is How It Took Place

‘Prodigious, gifted, precocious: Rudrakshi Bhattacharjee was all of this. It is an incalculable loss to Indian literature that she left us at the age of sixteen.’ — Jeet Thayil. A girl tries in vain to please her mother, a young woman comes to terms with her infidelity, siblings take over each other’s identities — these stories, often told from the perspectives of silent rebels, headstrong loners and nihilistic onlookers, open up the fissures between friendship, love, marriage and familial bonds. Selected and edited by Shinie Antony, these sixteen stories house situations and characters that readers won’t forget. Fuelled by a singular and affecting voice, This Is How It Took Place is a truly masterful debut.