I went in with the least expectation from this book because not very many books translated from the Odia are famous. But guess who surprised me with a collection of stories that are outrageously courageous, intricately woven, and written with brilliance and wit? If you had told me that a group of stories from Odia would make it to my best short story collection (along with the Heart Lamp) read this year, I wouldn’t have trusted you at first.