Nude : Collected Stories

‘Some women should never wear clothes—clothes that hide the shape and colour of their flesh and skin . . .’ In the title story Robie is looking for a model for a nude he has to paint when he is introduced to Mrs Oliver by his friend Turner. When he sees her he is disappointed at how utterly unsuited she is as a subject for the kind of painting he has in mind. However when she poses he realizes that some women look best in the nude. Bhima cheats on her devoted husband Madhu but is in for a rude shock in ‘The Silver Anklets’ and a man dies trying to induce in his son ‘A Taste of Blood’ and make him a ‘real’ man. A police officer caught in a storm in the Garhwal hills takes refuge in the temple of ‘The Alabaster Goddess’ and achieves an unexpected breakthrough in an old investigation. Vanilla fudge and Mr Krishna’s death are cause for much jubilation for two little girls in ‘Happiness Is a Box of Fudge’. Written in lucid prose and set in the most ordinary situations the nineteen stories in The Nude are fascinating snapshots of life that chart some of the most basic and most intricate human emotions.