In his delightful new book, Kanchan Chatterjee takes readers on a nostalgic journey to a small town lying on the border of India and Nepal.
Seemingly set in a mundane narrative between Rudra, the protagonist and the inhabitants of the local community, the author’s prose is remarkably colourful and humorous. It could very well be selected as a manuscript for the next popular Indian television drama. A prize-winning haikuist, Chatterjee’s book nonetheless reads like a down-to-earth travel journal. The chapter titles － from “A little birdie out the window” to “A Spring breeze” to “Monsoon day” and finally “Homecoming” － spread like an umbrella covering nature’s changing seasons.. Finding an occasional well-placed haiku embedded in the narrative raises the literary work to the level of a Japanese haibun such as Matsuo Basho’s haiku journey “The Narrow Road to the Deep North.”
Whether you are an armchair tourist, amateur haikuist, or an international adventurer who has been stymied by the pandemic, Kanchan Chatterjee’s latest literary masterpiece will surely whet your appetite for overland travel again.
This book of haibun is highly recommended.
– Introductory blurb by David McMurray (Intercultural Studies Professor and Asahi Haikuist Network Editor).