At the End of the Century: The Stories of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Review The Indians portrayed in such stories as 'Expiation' and 'The Widow' are unforgettable...Essential reading for anyone who enjoys fiction about India, especially when the stories come from the pen of a master.-- "Library Journal (starred review)"

To read Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is to regard the human heart through a magnifying glass...taking an intimate look at the complex modus operandi of love between siblings, paramours, and strangers...[in] elegant, clear-eyed fiction. -- "O, The Oprah Magazine"

The stories...are largely character studies of people isolated, often tragically, by custom or self-delusion...This is what surely gives Jhabvala's work its rare gleam: the undeceived clarity of the eternal outsider, immersed yet apart.-- "New York Times Book Review"

Beautifully curated selection of some of her most celebrated writing...[that] feel as contemporary as great literature always does...A wonderful reintroduction to one of the twentieth century's great female writers and a deliciously intersectional and thoughtful passage to her India.-- "Washington Post"

A richly enjoyable reminder of Jhabvala's keenly observant talent. --"Sunday Times (London)"Jhabvala has Alice Munro's gift for making you feel you're reading a novel in miniature as she distills to their essence broad expanses of geography, personal history, and time. --" Seattle Times"A richly captivating, revelatory, and important collection. --"Booklist (starred review)" Product Description Multilayered, subtle, insightful short stories from the inimitable Booker Prize winning authorNobody has written so powerfully of the relationship between and within India and the Western middle classes than Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. In this selection of stories, chosen by her surviving family, her ability to tenderly and humorously view the situations faced by three (sometimes interacting) cultures European, post-Independence Indian, and American is never more acute.In A Course of English Studies, a young woman arrives at Oxford from India and struggles to adapt, not only to the sad, stoic object of her infatuation but also to a country that seems so resistant to passion and color. In the wrenching Expiation, the blind, unconditional love of a cloth-shop owner for his wastrel younger brother exposes the tragic beauty and foolishness of human compassion and faith. The wry and triumphant Pagans brings us middle-aged sisters Brigitte and Frankie in Los Angeles, who discover a youthful sexuality in the company of the languid and handsome young Indian, Shoki. This collection also includes Jhabvala s last story, The Judge s Will, which appeared in the New Yorker in 2013 after her death. The profound inner experience of both men and women is at the center of Jhabvala s writing: she rivals Jane Austen with her impeccable powers of observation. With an introduction by her friend, the writer Anita Desai, At the End of the Century celebrates a writer s astonishing lifetime gift for language and leaves us with no doubt of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala s unique place in modern literature. About the Author Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1927-2013), author of several novels and short stories, worked on major motion pictures in collaboration with James Ivory and Ismail Merchant, winning the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Howards End and A Room with a View. She won the Booker Prize in 1975 for Heat and Dust.