Kankana Basu is a commercial artist by profession and has worked as an illustrator and visualizer for various advertising agencies. All along she has been moonlighting as a freelance writer for various publications, writing short stories, essays and humour pieces on a wide range of subjects – from current affairs to psychology, fashion and interior decoration. She is currently a regular freelancer for several newspaper supplements. From time to time, she also assists in the translation of stories written by her grandfather, Saradindu Bandopadhyay. She is married to a marine engineer, and has two sons aged thirteen and eleven. Most of her stories were written while sailing on the high seas with her husband.

Vinegar Sunday

With Basu around, you don’t really need Jhumpa Lahiri. There is a rhythm to her stories that comes from many tunes, some even unheard by most.

Ravi Shanker Etteth

Kankana Basu's Vinegar Sunday announces the arrival of a quiet, ironic voice in the little explored genre of the Indian short story in English. Her short stories in this collection offer revealing glimpses of the Bengali residents in Halfway House, and as you progress through the stories you confirm for yourself your worst fear: normal is neurotic. Kankana Basu is a writer to watch out for.

C. P. Surendran

Very raw, very real; these stories freeze-frame the Bengali community with all its unique tics and traits. More than fiction, these are chunks of ordinary everyday lives, where the drama is more felt than seen.

Pradeep Guha

Kankana Basu makes an impressive debut with her first book of short stories. Written with a sensitive eye for detail and emotion, the stories conjure up a world of Bengali middle class angst and middle-aged epiphanies. In content and style Basu reminds one of that other great interpreter of contemporary Bengali sensibility, Amitav Ghosh.