FIFTY-FIVE PILLARS, RED WALLS

Description
First published in 1961, Usha Priyamvada's debut novel Pachpan Khambe, Laal
Deewaarein is located within the boundaries of an all-women's college in Delhi.
Behind its walls is Sushma Sharma-lecturer, warden, single, and sole provider
for her large family. Despite her relative youth and elegance, she is resigned to the
regimented loneliness of her life, until a chance meeting with the charismatic Neel.
Then, long-thwarted desires uncurl and the shackles she has accepted suddenly begin
to seem unbearable. But the world around her is still unchanged, and independence
still causes scandal...
In spare, evocative prose, Fifty-five Pillars, Red Walls skilfully explores the physical,
mental and social paradigms which locked so many women into narrow ideals, as
they still do. Daisy Rockwell's pitch-perfect translation brings this quietly intense,
poignant and pathbreaking Hindi novel into the blazing spotlight of classic Indian
literature for the first time