A mother farewells her dead children on an unusual pilgrimage; a wife’s affair with an old schoolfriend brings unexpected joy and pain; a young domestic worker rediscovers the husband she thought she had lost. Mridula Koshy tells the stories of ordinary women in Delhi and examines the hope at the centre of their diverse lives.

If If Is Sweet won the 2009 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize and was shortlisted for the 2009 Vodafone Crossword Book Award.

‘Rich, intricate, lingering. Mridula Koshy is a craftswoman of unassailable skill.’
– Josephine Rowe

‘These stories, written from the heart for the heart, introduce a remarkable talent. 
I savoured each and every sweet moment of this wonderful book.’
– Tony Birch

‘In brooding, otherworldly prose, Mridula Koshy tells us the stories other
writers overlook, or do not wish to tell: the household thoughts that must always remain
silent, the disavowed dramas of the city, the heartbreaking proximity of opposite emotions.
If It Is Sweet is a book of savage, beautiful writing, whose empathy and curiosity flood over the usual barricades of the imagination – and remind us, indeed, what real writing is.’
– Rana Dasgupta, author of Tokyo Cancelled and Solo, winner of the
2010 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Mridula Koshy lives in New Delhi with her poet-schoolteacher partner and three exceptionally wonderful children. Her stories have appeared in Wasafiri, Prairie Fire, The Dalhousie Review and Existere, as well as in anthologies in India, the UK and Italy.

ISBN: 978-0-980-86391-8