The Year’s Best

The stories collected in this volume of The Year’s Best Bengali Fiction were all written in 2022 and were translated into English over the next year. These works of fiction are aware of their times as they throw light on the edges and depths of our communities and characters.

In these troubled times, when it seems often that a lot of the ears have gone dead, like a lot of those mouths that instead of screaming, turn into stones, these stories, seeped in deep empathy for human lives and conditions, glowing in poised craftsmanship of narration and translation, offer a space of possibility, of conversation and resonance.

Starting with this edition, we aspire to form a representative yearly archive of contemporary Bengali short fiction for global anglophone readers.

The authors of these stories are the winners of Shyamal Gangopadhyay Honour Award.