Soiled Clothes

Mandira, a girl from Calcutta, goes to London to pursue higher studies. Within a few months of arriving there, she marries Thomas Brockway, a promising young aristocrat with enviable political lineage. By the time Tom (Thomas) has been elected M.P., Mandira finds herself celebrating the silver jubilee anniversary of their marriage. Her grown-up children, Robin and Liz, are well settled in life. Suddenly at this juncture, Mandira experiences a strange emotional crisis. All at once, she brings down the curtain on her twenty-six years of married life and opts for a different way of life—of self-imposed solitude, initially in England and then in India. But to what end? What is this crisis that has compelled a middle- aged woman to forsake the certainties of a married life? Does she attain what she has yearned for or does life still have surprises in store for her? And is her filial affection, particularly for her daughter, reciprocated? Do her children attempt to find her and reconcile with her decisions?

The protean nature of this novel evades typecasting. Many socio-political, moral and feminist issues criss-cross the fabric of the novel, at the heart of which lies its enigmatic protagonist. She embodies the underlying tension of the offbeat storyline and shifting narrative that keeps the reader spellbound.