Transgressions that fly in the face of patriarchy are not always bold-faced or loud. There are the quieter impulses that are no less fierce. In this collection of short stories, the establishment is dismantled with the steely rebellion of simply declining to fit the mould.

From friends who play a never-ending game of keeping up to a sister out to get her brother's wife, from a culinary expert who dishes up revenge to a stern schoolteacher and her giggly students, from a trophy wife who faces the truth at the scaly end of her cigar to a refugee who unsettles her employer, these stories span a range of geographies, exploring both the interior and exterior worlds, creating a truly expansive and inclusive feminine narrative.

Impetuous Women is a darkly comic, thrillingly tragic collection. It is sensuous, bittersweet and whimsical by turns, and always wildly, subversively original.

SHIKHANDIN is the nom de plume of an Indian writer who writes for both adults and children. Her published books, as Shikhandin, include Immoderate Men and Vibhuti Cat. Prior to that, she has also written a novel and a short-story collection. Her poetry and prose have won numerous awards in India and abroad, and have been widely published, both nationally and internationally, in print and online journals and anthologies.