About The Book (Book Blurb)
Find that majestic mango, your problem will be solved—a mystic ordered an individual who asked for help.
My ax is my guru—declared a woodcutter.
Instead of preparing a plan to kill it, why can’t we offer help? —a villager questioned in the middle of the assembly.
I could not be relieved even after undertaking efforts to end my life—a scholar declared in public.
Can you be my mother?—a boy requested of a pretentious lady.
I wish I had more life to undo my past—a mischief-maker contemplated in his letter.
I would never relinquish them, even if I had to sacrifice my life—a young prince swore putting his life on the shore.
I was chained by limitations, yet I prevailed—a butcher made a victorious cry.
You climbed up the ladder. I did not. Who reached the top?—a brother questioned his sibling who cried for help.
Walks Through Life is a collection of stories in which each story reverberates the same principle of truth in its own unique ways. These are stories serving as plain reminders of the supreme learning that was handed over to us a long time ago.
Review
‘Your sacred space is where you can find yourself over and over again.’
-Joseph Campbell
It was my friend who suggested me to take up this book – Walks through Life: Stories, telling me that it will make you think and he is quite right I do thought a lot while reading this book and it gave me that space where I could find myself again! I would take this moment to thank my friend for the suggestion; he got it very much right.
Walks through life: Stories serves you a set of short stories with a spectrum of ideas and thoughts to ponder upon. They are filled with morals and positivity, I guess like the title, it takes you on a walk through life. It opens up a window to lives of different people not just like the ones around you but those of fantasy too to convoy a point. The context of the book is very much impressive.
Stories like A Gold Message, Two Misjudgements are worth to be praised. Each story is strong enough to stand on its own. Rise of Motherhood really touched my heart, the point as mentioned in the blurb, the boy asking the lady whether she could be his mother, that’s where a tear rolled down my cheek. I loved how each character of the stories stand up on their own to reach your heart. I personally loved Blessing of a Curse from the collection.
The idea that they are short stories makes it very much pleasing, it is short and to the point in what it wants to convoy. The collection is consistent and the mythological aspects of few of the stories blends in well. Few of the stories will remind you of the classic stories that you have heard of, like the woodcutter story which is pleasant. The book would make a great companion with a cup of tea or coffee over a leisure weekend. It would work on a great deal of emotions and feelings and thoughts while you read through each stories.
The designer did a good job with the cover design, it is quite creative and matches well with the title, I loved the idea of black and white contrast and that speck of red to it. The writing style and story telling of the author is quite commendable, I believe he did a great job at it; in reaching out to the readers. It’s simple yet effective presentation of stories. It would be great to hear more from him, maybe another set of stories or so.
About Author
‘All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.’
—Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable feast
When Santhosh encountered the above quote that came from a reputable American author, it strengthened his intentions to write. Though he made that fact as a foundation for his writings, he wasn’t confident whether a truth can be easily written. Because, a truth for him is such an entity that can be easily understood, but the realization seemed hard. That posed a challenge for him as he began to write. Several questions followed. Nevertheless, he continued and wanted to see where he would head. Fortunately, that questioning fueled his writing engine, instead of burning his aspirations resulting in his debut book —Walks Through Life: Stories.
The inspiration behind his writing comes from his interaction with Hindu mythology. He believes that mythology does not just offer historical events but, rather, a set of valuable lessons that are often interwoven within the details. He chose story writing as a medium to bring those learnings out. He intends to continue his writing in this regard.
Author Name: Santhosh Komaraju
Book Title: Walks Through Life : Stories
Genre: Literary Fiction