Goan writing in Portuguese has had a long and chequered history and at present is all but unknown in the region that inspired it, and by the descendants of those who produced it.

This collection, originally published as a special edition of the reputed literary magazine Muse India, gathers translations of short stories, poems and extracts of novels and sets them alongside critical articles that aim to open up this body of writing for a contemporary Anglophone reader in Goa and further afield.

Though often (but not exclusively) produced from a position of social advantage, and predominantly by Catholics, this branch of Goan literature contains many viewpoints on the history, identity and society of a territory that, while colonised by Portugal for hundreds of years, has always negotiated its place in the world in a wider Indian context. In this house of writing there are indeed many mansions.

The choice of writers, the themes and the styles represented in this volume tell us something about Srinivas Rayaprol himself, about the mind of the creative writer-cum-translator at work. The selected texts cover a range of themes concerning man-woman relationships, women's desires, the plight of single women, the functioning of bureaucrats and politicians, among others. One cannot miss out on the preoccupation with death in many stories, nor can one ignore the ironic twist in the conclusions of some of them. The choices also seem to suggest an inclination for the unusual, rather than run-of-the-mill stories, both in terms of theme and style. The final selection of the stories seems to be purely personal. The order in which the stories have been presented too seems unique, for it defies chronology.

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.

Between the Lines and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by Ashita, one of Malayalam's finest women writers.