Hajar Churashir Maa

Hajar Churashir Maa is Mahasweta Devi’s powerful novel about the mother of a young Naxalite killed by the police, identified in the morgue only by his case number, 1084. The book follows her through a single day as she tries to understand what her son believed in and why he died for it.

It is short, hard, and unforgettable. Mahasweta Devi rarely wrote with anything less than total conviction, and this is one of her most important books.