LIKE a necklace of variegated pearls, each with its unique lustre, the twenty-three stories in this collection have a common thread holding them together - the unusual theme of the male as victim.

Some are written by names that need no introduction - Premchand, Rabindranath Tagore, and Sa'adat Hasan Manto - while others speaks in fresh, distinctive voices.

The Muffled Heart, with its startling insights into the plight of the disempowered male, questions conventional perspectives on the supposedly privileged gender of Indian patriarchal society.

About the Author:

Jayita Sengupta teaches English literature in South Calcutta Girl's College under Calcutta University. She has translated into English short stories of Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay. She is the editor of the journal Interactions and is also on the editorial board of Indian Journal of World Literature and Culture.

Niladri R. Chatterjee teaches English at the University of Kalyani. He has contributed to The Reader's Companion to Twentieth Century Writers, The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and The Isherwood Century.