Father Gabriel's Crypt

Thema for young readers Indian Children's Classics In Translation.

Even as children's literature becomes globalizedTHEMA launches a series of Indian children's classicsin translation, each of them rooted in the culture and sensibility and experienceof a particular region of the country, offering youngreaders in other regions rare insights into the lives and feelings ofthe children of that region, opening up the possibility of a fraternizationof young people beyond geographical borders and barmers of language.

Father Gabriel's Crypt

Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay

Translated by Ananya Banerjee

Illustrations by Gautam Bhaumik.

An unusual ghost story for children with a subtle moral point by one of the major contemporary writers in Bengali. In most of his novelettes for young readers, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay (b.1935), one of the major figures in contemporary Bengali fiction, tells the story of a teenager discovering himself in his encounters with forces of both good and evil. Including bullies and hoodlums, sometimes a golden-hearted thief taking pride in his professional skill, and benevolent ghosts! Father Gabriel's Crypt, the first of these works to be translated into English, has a mix of adventure. suspense, fun and whimsy rarely so well combined.