Publisher Description

When Manu came into the world, the family astrologer told his mother that he was a boy gifted with extraordinary vision. But he said no more, even though he could see that this boy would go far and wideand that there was something unsettled about his life. He could also see that the boy was endowed with powers of looking into the past and into the future. Some event would bring out Manus gift, but it was unclear when it would occur. Manu settles into living a normal life in rural India, navigating changing social attitudes and steady traditions. As he gets older, he realizes that as the eldest child, the familys fortunes hinge on him. When he gets a job at a factory, he goes from a boy to a man in one bound. But then something transforms his life and destiny, and he embarks on a journey of self-discovery that brings him ecstasy, agony, hope, and despair. Join Manu on a journey symbolic of the one that we all go through, one that brings him tantalizingly close to everlasting love and happiness in The Princess of the Wind and the Son of Man.

Pasha Malla knows joy in all of its weird, unsettling, and wondrous forms. In their humor, warmth, and rigorous honesty, his stories clearly capture something odd and beautiful: the unmistakable feeling of empathy. From young couples fighting through the emotional trauma of the modern world to children navigating wayward, forbidden paths of a fantasized adulthood, Malla presents characters deeply entrenched in the familiar and hearts that slowly open to reveal the pain and unexpected love that life accumulates. The Withdrawal Method offers worlds where Niagara Falls has run dry, where people’s skin can be shed in a single piece, and where ancient frustrated chess masters invent machines that unexpectedly alter the course of history. Reminiscent of Lorrie Moore, Haruki Murakami, and George Saunders, these stories are haunting, captivating, and constructed with a poise and precision that reach beyond technical skill. Malla’s is an assured new voice; his smooth, mature style is punctuated by bursts of wild humor and enlivened by endlessly inventive storytelling. As individual narratives, these stories speak to each side of the protean human psyche, but when taken together they address with full understanding the fragility of our lives.