Mirage and other stories

Damodar Mauzo is among the foremost contemporary writers in Konkani, with several works to his credit, among them five short story collections, three novels and two biographical sketches. His novel Karmelin, for which he was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983, has been published in translation in Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Bengali, English, Punjabi, Sindhi, Tamil, Oriya, Asamiya, Gujarati and Maithili. This book is a translation of Rumadful, a collection of short stories first published in 1988. Vidya Pai has translated five Konkani novels: Pundalik Naik's Acchev (The Upheaval, 2002), Mahabaleshwar Sail's Kali Ganga (Kali Ganga, 2003), Havthan (The Kiln, 2011), and Aranyakand (Forest Saga, 2014), as well as Damodar Mauzo's Karmelin (Karmelin, 2004). Her translated essays and short stories appear in several anthologies. She received the Katha Award in 1994 and the Humanscape Translation Award in 1996. First published in 1988, Rumadful is a delightful collection of short stories that capture a wide range of human emotions. In this collection, the author has also experimented with the science fiction genre, a bold step to take in Indian language fiction during the time it was published.