The Night Cradles A Lonely Moon by Sumona is a riveting collection of 13 short stories. The book explores a gamut of counted and uncounted shades of love. While reading the book, one may feel that ‘Love’ is beyond the apprehension of common vista. It is ingrained deep inside, at times visible, otherwise struggles to surface.
Often books based on love are warts-and-all, because they fit in a stereotype pattern. Well, this book is all about delving deep in the psychic of lovers and their hearts. There is romance, sizzling seduction, silent heartbreaks, layers of eroticism – and above all expression of love in all sorts of circumstances. Almost all stories are contemporary and ironical in their scaffolds. It’s a wonderful book for the discerning romance readers.
Talking about the stories, the book opens up with ‘Tavern by the Sea’ – the story is staged against the sublime backdrop of Goa, where two lovers meet once in a year on the eve of Valentine’s Day. It’s difficult to define their love but it’s sacrificial in natural essence as both lovers wait for 12 months only to enjoy one day in their lives.
In some of the stories, the author leveraged dating apps as subtle catalytic agents. They nudge the story, steer the climax, and at times either break or patch up. For instance, the stories like ‘The Terrible Twos’ and ‘The Night Goes’. Dating apps is a reality – but the funny part is that everyone looks for the best mate – and probably this is the biggest irony of our modern-day lives. Not only this, in the book, one may found that the hope to find true love has been kept alive forever. All stories are about love, that way or another way.
Easy to read…but in snatches a little difficult to grasp, Sumona’s narration is at par with the genre of the book. If you believed in love despite many heartbreaks, or enjoyed the phase of love at some point of time, you must pick up this masterpiece by a debutant.
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Loved reading the book. It's simply astonishing the way Sumona has created mind-blowing stories with keeping every element in mind.
ReplyDeleteI can read it 100 times and still won't get bored ❤️