Intriguing Women is Lakshmi Raj Sharma’s third work of
fiction and second short story collection. After the success of his
debut novel The Tailor’s Needle and his first book of short stories
Marriages Are Made In India, Sharma now publishes this, masterly
collection of stories about women in all their infinite – and
intriguing – variety. Male readers may learn something useful too…

The stories have international and Indian settings. We visit Europe,
we travel to Afghanistan and we celebrate the rich variety of the
Indian continent. These are women who may seem superficially normal,
but might not be, and women who strive for normality at all costs.
Sharma also raises questions; can a woman reconcile herself to
terrorism? How do we react to a woman who kills several of her
husbands? Definitions of femininity are examined and magnified through
the prism of fiction.

We meet women who despite years of oppression, are smart enough to
ride the 21st century successfully, while others are left behind,
unable to handle the complexities of modern life. These stories
report, reflect and examine the feminine nature.

What is it like to be born a woman, most particularly an Indian woman?
Intriguing stories indeed.