IN A FOREIGN LAND, BY CHANCE

Bipasha Choudhury, writer and poet in the English language, living in London for some years, is in Czechoslovakia, as part of a writer's group - a visit that is set to change her in more ways than one. This is a time when Czechoslovakia is still a socialist state under Soviet dominion, poised for a major upheaval and change. In this milieu of brewing internal struggle for identity, a life-churning experience awaits Bipasha. Looking for answers outside, Bipasha is about to discover a valuable part of herself to pave a new destiny - in a foreign land, by chance. The novel is about language and identity that came before the tide of Indian Writing in English that touched India's shores.

Nabaneeta Dev Sen is one of the prominent Bengali litterateurs of our times with more than 80 books to her name. A student of Presidency, Jadavpur, Indiana, Harvard, Cambridge, and Berkeley Universities, an outstanding academic, she recently retired as Professor of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Her works reflect her intellections on an amazing array of social, political, and psychological topics, under different genres like poetry, novels, short stories, plays, literary criticism, travelogues, translations, and children's literature. Her Radhakrishnan Memorial Lecture series at Oxford University, a pioneering work on women's Ramayanas, has started a new school of studies on Sita across the world. Nabaneeta is the Founder President of Soi, Women Writers Association of West Bengal, President of International PEN, West Bengal, and President of Shishu Sahitya Parishad. She has received national and international awards including Padma Shri, Sahitya Akademi Award, and Bangla Akademi Lifetime Achievement Award. Soma Das is a freelance editor and translates Bengali fiction and non-fiction literary works into English. Her translations include the works of some renowned Bengali authors like Shankar, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Nabaneeta Dev Sen,Gautam Bhattacharya, and Tilottama Majumder. She lives in the UK.