In the Country of Deceit

Devayani chooses to live alone in the small town of Rajnur after her parents’ death ignoring the gently voiced disapproval of her family and friends. Teaching English creating a garden and making friends with Rani a former actress who settles in the town with her husband and three children Devayani’s life is tranquil imbued with a hard-won independence. Then she meets Ashok Chinappa Rajnur’s new District Superintendent of Police and they fall in love despite the fact that Ashok is much older married and—as both painfully acknowledge from the very beginning—it is a relationship without a future. Deshpande’s unflinching gaze tracks the suffering evasions and lies that overtake those caught in the web of subterfuge. There are no hostages taken in the country of deceit; no victors; only scarred lives. This understated yet compassionate examination of the nature of love loyalty and deception establishes yet again Deshpande’s position as one of India’s most formidable writers of fiction.