The Denudation

Sujoy Banerjee has been a man ‘Untouched By Sin’. There was a time when his hands were dedicated to a life with paint, canvas and brush. But then, the same hands began to orchestrate one murder after another. Were these killings really necessary? And did Sujoy Banerjee commit sin through these acts? He took it upon himself to rid the world of ‘fifth’. To destroy darkness with a missionary zeal and the suaveness of a master craftsman. After all, was it a sin to kill in self-defence?

In the course of time, Sujoy stands facing an unimaginable moment of life when his own flesh and blood – his daughter – breaks social norms and passionately desires him. How does he tide over that agonizing chapter? Like the hero of a classical tragedy he lays bare his heart, his sinews and soul as the world around him crumbles to a sorry heap.

In this soul-searching novel, Tilottama Majumder deftly traverses the various dim and dark alleyways of human psychology and analyses the existence and non-existence of love and sin in a world of crime and lust.

Tilottama Majumder was born in North Bengal and grew up in a tea garden in Kalchini. She continued further studies in Scottish Church College, Kolkata. Belonging to a family devoted to literature, she started writing in 1993. Her first novel was Rhee and later she received the Ananda Puroshkar for the novel Basudhara. She lives in Kolkata and is associated with the editorial division of Ananda Publisher. In her free time she enjoys music and travelling.

Soma Das is a freelance editor and translates Bengali fiction and nonfiction literary works into English. Her translations include the works of some renowned Bengali authors like Shankar Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Nabanita Dev Sen, Gautam Bhattacharya and Tilottama Majumder.

Born and raised in Kolkata, she graduated from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, finding enjoyment in literature and art. She later stumbled upon and opportunity to transform her passion into profession. Soma lives in London, UK with her family, visiting Kolkata whenever her roots call, which is often.