The Boundaries of Sanity - Short Stories of Mira Saraf

A well-written short story is a piece of art. It encompasses whole lives within it, much akin to seeing a world in a grain of sand. Mira Saraf’s stories do just that. In a short anthology of five stories, she brings in a melange of extremely powerful emotions that overwhelm the reader.

The book veers from the bliss of solitude, where the protagonist “dreamed of familiarity, of friends, of family, of a time before her rapid downward spiral”, to a scenario where guilt takes centre stage till realization strikes, with the assurance that it is okay to let go.

Suspicion and paranoia can both be debilitating, as can be loss of memory and the fear of living a life gone awry, especially when one is a writer, producing words. “One after another, like footsteps on a long journey.”

What happens when a failed novelist whose “writing had the flavour of stale cardboard” finds the right muse?

Mira Saraf’s stories tread that space between sanity and its spill over the edges. They are written in a style that draws in the readers, with that hint of suspense that make them stay aboard. The main characters seem to be holding on to the last shards of their sanity, and yet, the stories, all but one, portray the light at the end of a tunnel.

‘The Storyteller’ is my favourite story, followed closely by ‘The Mirage’.

The cover of the book, with its traditional feel, goes perfectly with its unusual theme. 

A book from the Readomania stable that needs to be read, and savoured!