When Dreams Travel

‘The powerless must have a dream or two dreams that break walls dreams that go through walls as if they are powerless.’ A magical tour de force by a writer at the height of her powers When Dreams Travel weaves round Scheherazade-or Shahrzad of the thousand and one nights-a vibrant inventive story about that old game that’s never played out the quest for love and power. The curtain opens on four figures two men and two women. There is the sultan who wants a virgin every night there is his brother who makes an enemy of darkness and tries to banish it and there are their ambitious brides the sisters Shahrzad and Dunyazad aspiring to be heroines-or martyrs. Travelling in and out of these lives to spellbinding effect is a range of stories dark poetic and witty by turns spanning medieval to contemporary times. With its sharp and lively blend of past and present its skillful reworking of the historical tradition and its controlled use of evocative language Githa Hariharan’s multi-voiced narrative assumes the significance of modern myth. About the Author Githa Hariharan has written novels short fiction and essays over the last three decades. Her highly acclaimed work includesThe Thousand Faces of Night which won the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book in 1993 the short story collectionThe Art of Dying the novelsThe Ghosts of Vasu MasterWhen Dreams TravelIn Times of Siege andFugitive Histories and a collection of essays entitledAlmost Home Cities and Other Places. For more on this Delhi-based author and her work visit www.githahariharan.com