The sixteen short stories collected here were written between 1891 and 1917 by the Bengali poet, writer, painter, musician and mystic, Sir Rabindranath Tagore.

The sixteen short stories collected here were written between 1891 and 1917 by the Bengali poet, writer, painter, musician and mystic, Sir Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). Throughout these stories, Tagore's main interest is people and the kaleidoscope of human emotions, as men and women struggle with the restrictions and prohibitions of contemporary Hindu society. This collection includes one of his finest stories, Sunshine and Clouds. Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.

The translator, Dr Pratima Bowes was Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Sussex from 1966 to 1982, when she returned to India. She was formerly a post-doctoral Mellon Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh (USA) and Principal of Shikshayatan College, Calcutta.