Ret Samadhi/Tomb of Sand

       Tomb of Sand (रेत समाधि)

                           Written by Geetanjali Shree                 

                             Translated by Daisy Rockwell

Earlier this month, the longlist for the International Booker Prize 2022(also the winner of an English Pen Award), was revealed and, for the first time ever, a Hindi-Language novel made the cut- Delhi-based writer Geetanjali Shree's 2019 novel Ret Samadhi, translated into English by Daisy Rockwell as Tomb of Sand.

The Booker nod is well-deserved not only for Geetanajli Shree, but also for Daisy Rockwell, who over the past decade or so has quietly built a formidable body of work as a Hindi and Urdu Translator.

Daisy Rockwell is an American, who lives in North Bennington, Vermont, US, who has now translated works by titans like Bhisham Sahni, Krishna Sobti, Upendranath Ashk, Usha Priyamvada, and recently, the Pakistani Writer Khadija Mastur.

Ret Samaadhi/Tomb of Sand is a novel that follows its protagonist, a recently widowed, nearly 80-year-old-woman as she gains a new lease of life,prompting her to retrace her youth which was spent in what is now Pakistan.

Themes and Metaphors of death and reincarnation are used liberally throughout.

Tomb of Sand's formal audacity also comes to the fore in a passage deep into the second half, where several well known authors of Partition novels-and some of their characters-make cameo appearances in the chapter that resembles a David Lynch fever dream.

When the novel was thought to be translated, the narrative was set in contemporary times, but as off now it is a break from her (Daisy Rockwell's) works translating Partition Classics such as Bhisham Sahni's Tamas and Krishna Sobti's Gujarat Pakistan se Gujarat Hindustan.

Geetanjali Shree

Daisy Rockwell