Vivid and alive, this powerful novella about one woman's belated rebellion against the powers that be is Anita Desai at her finest.

Nanda Kaul has chosen to spend her final years alone in the tranquil mountains. But her solitude is broken when her strange and secretive great-grand-daughter comes to stay. Through the long hot summer months, hidden dependencies and old wounds are uncovered, until tragedy seems as inevitable as a forest fire on the mountainside.

BRIEF ENCOUNTERS: classic novellas and captivating stories, to be read in a single sitting or savoured over days