Description
About the book
“And what is lying on the floor is only a woman. Nothing of any importance. Nothing extraordinary. Nothing.”
Out of this ordinariness, this nothingness, the character embarks upon a fantastical voyage of discovery, rediscovery, and being. Her thoughts and imagination float away from the material, concrete realities of her immediate experience into the abstract, cosmic largeness of creation. This book is a courageous play of the imagination, untethered, a fantastical leap of faith that must first erase known structures in order to form new patterns. In doing so, the narrative draws in elements of different genres, creating a sense of strangeness that challenges our notions of comfort and discomfort. The story is about lost hopes and lost worlds, and therefore about loss. But it is also about hope. About dreams dreamt, about reimagining what one has lost, about erasing dystopic melancholy with the anticipation of regrowth, resurgence.
Early praise for the book
In her novel, The Woman on the Red Oxide Floor, Shikhandin both challenges and surprises the readers, moving from the narration of the most mundane events to something way beyond. The mother-child theme however remains paramount, with an almost perfect rendition of an infant’s life and thoughts. In the end, all the dots are connected and a new picture emerges.
— Shashi Deshpande
Oscillating between the concrete and the abstract, live shadows and people, Shikhandin’s evocative novella The Woman on the Red Oxide Floor traverses through the inner and outer scapes of consciousness of the protagonists, the mother as well as the infant. The expansive range and canvas for action is touchingly experiential, inviting the reader to grapple with the intriguing folds of life and death.
— Sukrita Paul Kumar
Bridges the cosmic and the intimate, the too-real and the mystical, with elegant prose and unflinching honesty.
— Samit Basu
The Woman on the Red Oxide Floor is a fever dream of birth and destruction, a surprising, vivid, and essential reminder, here at the end of the world, of what human consciousness is capable.
— Michael DeLuca
About the author
Shikhandin is the pen name of an Indian writer. She writes fiction and poetry for both adults and children. Her published books, as Shikhandin, include After Grief, Impetuous Women, Immoderate Men and Vibhuti Cat. Prior to that a novel and a short story collection were published. Shikhandin’s sci-fi story – ‘Communal’ – was published simultaneously in two anthologies, A Dying Planet from Flametree Press and Avatar from Future Fiction in January 2020. Her speculative and satirical short story – ‘Ruddy Apes and Cannibals’ – was one of the most read works at After Dinner Conversation, a journal for stories that provoke questions, and is now part of their anthology available from Amazon. Her other fantastika/speculative prose and poetry have been published in Reckoning, Sybil’s Garage, Silver Blade, Enchanted Conversation, Grandpa’s Deep Space Diner, etc.
About RED RIVER Story
Edited by Sucharita Dutta-Asane, Red River Story Series is a series of limited edition fiction titles from Red River, a publishing outfit based in Delhi dedicated to publishing poetry in English and English translation. Established in 2017, Red River is known for its discerning selection of titles and experimental design. Red River is managed solely by poet, writer and translator Dibyajyoti Sarma, with the help of his friends and colleagues, because for everyone involved, Red River is not just a business, but a passion — an abiding love for poetry. This passion for poetry keeps Red River going, and thanks to the discerning readers of poetry in India and abroad, over the years, it has built a reputation as a niche publisher of poetry.
RED RIVER Story hopes to convey stories from the hinterland and the heartland, from metros and larger towns of the subcontinent — stories that are submerged in the rush of those that are more popular, more immediately acceptable, recognisable.
About the Editor
Sucharita Dutta-Asane is an award-winning writer and independent book editor based in Pune. Her short story collection, Cast Out and Other Stories, was published by Dhauli Books in 2018. It was among Amazon’s “Best of Summer from India, 2018” and was reviewed widely. It is part of the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Human Settlements’ (IIHS) library selection. The titular story of Sucharita’s collection is the subject of two international research papers around Gender Politics and Postcolonial Representations of Menstruation. Sucharita is the recipient of the international Dastaan Award and the Oxford Bookstores debuting writers’ (second place) award. Her fiction and reviews have appeared in various literary journals and anthologies. As independent editor she has worked with publishing houses, literary agencies as well as individual authors. From September 2017 to March 2019, she edited the online literary magazine Kitaab, published from Singapore. At present she edits fiction for the Bangalore Review, and teaches a postgraduate course in Writing and Editing at Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce, Pune.