Books by Meena Kandasamy

The Book of Desire is the award-winning (and Women''s Prize-shortlisted) writer Meena Kandasamy''s luminous translation of the Kamattu-p-pal, a 2000-year-old song of love and pleasure and the third part of the Thirukkural - one of the most important texts in Tamil literature. Written by the poet Thiruvalluvar, the Kamattu-p-pal section of the Thirukkural focuses on love and female sensuality. It is the most intimate section of this great work - and also, historically, the part that has been most heavily censored. Although hundreds of male translations of the text have been published, it has also only ever been translated by a woman once before. The Book of Desire is Meena''s own feminist reclamation of the Kamattu-p-pal. With her trademark wit, lyricism and passionate insight, she weaves a magic spell: taking the reader on a journey through 250 kurals (short verses), organised under separate headings - ''The Pleasure of Sex'', ''Renouncing Shame'', ''The Delights of Sulking - the result is

A slim, inventive novella that questions what divides fiction and memoir - Exquisite Cadavers is a bricolage of influence and a daring modernist short.

From one of India's boldest and most badass young voices, Kandasamy's second novel is a dazzling and provocative novelised account of her own abusive marriage.

A mighty thunderclap of a novel, The Gypsy Goddess is set to launch Meena Kandasamy as a brazen, inventive, provocative star