Home in the Dark

When civility is just a mask, what happens when it slips? This collection of gripping stories pries open the cracks in urban life, revealing the chaos and cruelty beneath.

Home in the Dark peels back the polished surface of middle-class life to expose the shadows lurking underneath: violence, betrayal, and the unsettling truths we refuse to see. In these fifteen gripping stories, Jayanta Dey weaves a world where desperation takes strange forms: a woman on the brink of suicide finds an unlikely savior in a rat, a stolen clock carries the weight of communal hatred, and a writer-publisher duo rides the highs of literary success--until their lucrative business in pornography turns against them.

Set in Calcutta and its suburbs, these tales decipher the moral and psychological conflicts simmering beneath genteel facades, where people will do anything to survive. With elements of the macabre and the psychological, Home in the Dark delivers sharp twists that unsettle as much as they illuminate. Translated from Bengali by Sayari Debnath, this collection brings a new and daring voice to readers, offering a rare glimpse into the dark undercurrents of contemporary urban life in India.

Jayanta Dey is a celebrated journalist, novelist, and short-story writer based in Calcutta. He is the editor of the Bengali weekly magazine Saptahik Bartaman.