The Great Feast: Translated by Ruth Vanita

A bold expose of the contemporary Indian political scene that has cast aside morality and ethics and unfailingly betrays public trust for vested interests and private ends.

The novel opens with the death of Bisesar – an unknown village youth – in itself an insignificant event. But with an important by – election around the corner, the feasting begins as opposing political parties like vultures seize upon the unfortunate event to extract political capital out of it, thereby providing sharp insights into the exercise of power and patronage.

Born 3 April, 1931 in Bhanpura, Madhya Pradesh into an illustrious, literary family, Mannu Bhandari inherited her writing talent from her father, Late Shri Sukhsampatrai Bhandari. She taught Hindi at Miranda House, Delhi University until her retirement. A path – breaking and prolific writer, she is the author of several novels like Aap ki Banti, Swami, plays and collections of short stories.

Ruth Vanita taught at Delhi University for twenty years, was founding co-editor of Manushi from 1978 to1990, and now teachers at the University of Montana. She is the author of Sappho and the Virgin Mary: Same-sex Love and the English Literary Imagination (1996), co-author of Same-sex Love in India: Reading from Literature and History (2000) and editor of Queering India: Same-sex Love in Indian Culture and Society (2002). She has translated several works of fiction and poetry from Hindi to English, including Sara Akash by Rajendra Yadav, as Strangers on the Roof (Penguin, 1994).