Chance Meetings is discounted from $5.99 to $0.99 until June 15
Genre:
Fiction
Pages:
205
Rating:
5 out of 5
NEW RELEASE……
In this eloquent collection of stories twelve different people from different walks of life discover how one chance meeting with a stranger can change a person forever. Madhu B. Wangu draws from her own Indian-American heritage and examines the lives of ordinary people facing challenging circumstances—cruelty, prejudiced minds, twisted family relationships, unhappy marriages—and demonstrates how these situations transcend ethnicity and background as interactions with strangers force each character to look deep within themselves, often acknowledging painful truths and long-held secrets, in order to seize control of their own destinies and forge their own paths to independence and happiness.
Story Summaries:
Secret Healer: One small town boy’s journey from the innocence of childhood to the injustices of servitude before finding shelter with an old man.
Cadmium and Crimson: Two sculptors, one goal—to make masterpieces in three dimensions. The older dedicates his life to art and his younger contemporary to success. Where do their intentions lead them?
Blackened Mirror: A successful artist discovers his authentic self.
A Chance Meeting: A young man treats a total stranger the way he wants to be treated without expecting anything in return to amazing effect.
Yellow Jacket: The protagonist is unable to resolve the guilt caused by the jealousy toward his younger brother as a result of his sudden death.
The Thug: In an intense, frightful hour, a woman realizes the folly of gossip.
A Precious Gift: After her son’s death, a distraught woman learns from her old mother how to cope with loss.
An American Dialogue: A synchronic event changes a prejudiced woman’s beliefs about a man from a religion other than her own.
Darkness Behind Eyes: At the age of seventy-two, the deep driving desire of a woman who has wanted to learn to read since her teen years helps her achieve her goal.
Gauri’s Freedom: An arranged marriage dramatically alters a young woman’s plans for her life until she meets another woman by chance who inspires her to take her life into her own hands through determination and self-sufficiency.
Cycle of Life: A young, idealistic woman learns why and how life goes on despite suffering, anguish and physical pain.
Portable Shrine: A writer discovers she is capable of more than she thought through the life lessons learned by the characters in her novel.
Read an excerpt
Madhu Bazaz Wangu poignantly weaves a universal message that ties the characters in these stories together, one that applies to anyone who has experienced poverty, jealousy, fear, prejudice, disillusionment, and above all, the feeling of being a foreigner, even within one’s own family.
“Beautiful, lush, lyrical stories and rhythmic language transports and transforms–each story is an unforgettable journey.”
– Kathleen Shoop, IPPY Award-Winning Author of The Last Letter and After the Fog
“A skilled practitioner, Madhu B. Wangu, writes from the marrow of her bones. In her collection, she conjures dream-like motifs of goodness, guidance, and the human condition. Her writing, infused with echoes of Hindu and Buddhist myths, is deeply satisfying and transformative.”
– Gwyn Cready, RITA Award Winning Author
“Chance Meetings is an evocative and thought-provoking collection: A delicious blending of cultures, delicately rendered and rich with sensory detail.”
Meredith Mileti, Author of Aftertaste
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I don’t typically read what a book is about prior to reading it. I feel like that ruins it. I like the surprise.
I base my desire to read a book based on the title and the cover. If the cover or title grab my attention, I take a chance and read it.
This was one of those situations. I didn’t see the book cover (I don’t think) but the title spoke to me.
I thought the book would be about ‘chance meetings’. Meeting someone for some reason or another.
I guess I was partially correct.
I thought the book would be more on a spiritual connection or two people meeting the same one person and having a different encounter than the other. I am not entirely sure what I was really expecting, really.
What I got were great stories that I intend to read over and over because they are uplifting, enlightening, and… how one experience can change your life.
I finished the book and have pondered the right words to articulate how I felt reading each story. They were all different and they made me feel differently.
I felt that Cadmium and Crimson was more of a folklore type story. One that your ancestors would share with you.
Blackened Mirror was such a neat read – probably one of my favorites out of the whole book.
The Thug is one that everyone should read as it’s based on pre-judgement and judging based on gossip.
Darkness Behind Eyes was inspiring.
They all were such great stories that leave you with different emotions, different lessons.
I really, really enjoyed this book and while I typically do not read books more than once; this is one I plan on reading every few months to remind myself of the little things and chance meetings.
About the author
A Historian of Asian Religions and Indian Art, Madhu B. Wangu taught Hindu and Buddhist art at Wheaton College, Wellesley, University of Rhode Island and University of Pittsburgh. She has published four non-fiction books and numerous essays in scholarly anthologies. “Chance Meetings” is her debut story collection.
Find the author on the following sites…