MANHATTAN MUSIC
Fiction
256 pages
Paper, $14.95
1-56279-092-7
US & Canada

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A major novel about an immigrant Indian woman in New York City, from a leading Indian-American author.

“Alexander's writing is imbued with a poetic grace shot through with an inner violence.… With her gift of heightened sensibility, she can take a tragic, violent situation and juxtapose it with a description of terrible beauty.”
— Ms.

“An insightful look at the multi-culti, trendy New York downtown art scene of the troubled ’90s.”
— Jessica Hagedorn

Alexander's writing is lyrical, poignant, and sensual, with large themes such as fanaticism, ethnic intolerance, terrorism, interracial affairs and marriages, what it means to be an American. Manhattan Music is about crossing borders — about groups of people with different beliefs struggling to coexist. Above all, it is the unforgettable story of a woman with an empty space in a part of her soul who struggles to break free, to reclaim her identity and her sense of self, to become strong and whole.

NAMPALLY ROAD
Fiction
124 pages
Paper, $9.95
1-56279-90-7
World

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Haunting and lyrical, Nampally Road vivdly portays contemporary India and one woman's struggle to piece together her past.

“With its restless crowds, cinemas, shops, temples, mango sellers, cobblers, cafés and bars, Nampally Road becomes a metaphor for contemporary India. Alexander has given us an unsentimental, multifaceted portrait, thankfully remote from that of the British raj. Her lyrical narrative has the eloquent economy that marks her best poetry.… Alexander treads the waters of fiction lightly and gracefully.”
— Village Voice

With lyrical clarity Nampally Road vividly portays the people of today’s India — Mira; her lover, Sumit, who draws her into the political struggle; old Swami Chari, thumping Sankara’s Vivekachudamani like a Baptist minister; and Rameeza, the woman violated by the police, a symbol of suffering India.

Born in India, MEENA ALEXANDER lives in New York City. She is Distinguished Professor of English and women's studies at Hunter College and the Graduate Center at CUNY. She is also the author of Fault Lines: A Memoir (The Feminist Press) and Illiterate Heart, Raw Silk, Quickly Changing River, volumes of poetry published by TriQuarterly Books/ Northwestern University Press.