#BookReview ; The Moving Shadow by Arunava Sinha

Disappearing corpses. Scientists who are spies.

Maniacal murderers. Brooding, remorseless detectives. Love triangles and murders. A robot that falls in love. Secrets of the dead and the departed. Sex, romance and betrayal. All these and more are to be found in these eight novellas and stories featuring spies, criminals, ghosts, black-magic practitioners and, of course, femmes fatales. These are the finest examples of a long tradition of pulp fiction that has always lurked in dark corners within the hallowed precincts of Bengali literature.

Written by brilliant mainstream as well as pulp fiction writers from India and Bangladesh, including Premendra Mitra, Satyajit Ray, Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, Gobindolal Bandyopadhyay and the redoubtable Swapan Kumar, the stories in The Moving Shadow: Electrifying Bengali Pulp Fiction give the reader a dazzling introduction to noir from the land of the bhodrolok.

The Moving Shadow is collection of stories written by a range of extraordinary Bengali writers from India as well as Bangladesh, it has been translated into English by Arunava Sinha. Arunava Sinha translates classic, modern and contemporary Bengali fiction and nonfiction into English. Besides India, his translations have been published in the UK and the US in English and in several European and Asian countries through further translation.

As the tagline of the book says, “Electrifying Bengali Pulp Fiction” this book consists of verity of stories which will keep you hooked till you finish them. Stories covered in the crime genre make a thrilling aura as you read them, several mysteries are interlocked & as you think you have figured them all out, there’s a twist that will knock your socks off. The stories in horror genre will indeed scare you but at the same time intrigue you to the core. Get the book here,

I haven’t read any Bengali pulp fiction before & there couldn’t have been a better introduction to this world. The stories are selected with great care as they’re so engaging that they will not let you leave the book alone until you have finished all of it. The translation is brilliant as usual, the cover is beautiful & the title is apt. Dive into this book & I can promise you won’t regret it.