White Dancing Elephants

*Praise for *White Dancing Elephants Named a Best Book by: Elle, Entertainment Weekly, Kirkus (Fall Most Anticipated Books), Literary Hub, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, Harper's Bazaar, Southern Living, Vulture, The Millions, New York Post, The Rumpus, Washington Independent Review of Books, Book Riot, Book Reporter, NPR, My Domaine, Culture Trip, Urban Daddy, Bustle, Bookish, Entropy, and San Francisco Chronicle

PEN/Bingham Debut Short Fiction Award finalist

A 35 over 35 Honoree for 2018

"Bhuvaneswar's debut story collection, already eliciting praise from the likes of Lauren Groff and Jeff VanderMeer, explores urgent themes of sexual harassment and racial violence through a poetic lens, exploring a cast of marginalized characters and infusing them with bracing life."
Entertainment Weekly

Chaya Bhuvaneswar proves to be an evocative new voice in feminist fictionThe stories are really brilliant. They're breathtaking in a way that forces me to pause between each one and just sit with the endings for a bit."
Elle

"(T)he biggest surprise in White Dancing Elephants is its core of hope and compassion. From two women having an affair that puts them in danger, to a slave in Renaissance Portugal who learns that sacrifice is sometimes the only way to save what we love, this collection is full of anguish, yet packed with optimism and courage. Bhuvaneswar is unflinching about the lives of those for whom identity is a constant battle and the act of being is an unavoidable challenge, but she doesn't ignore the beauty in their strengthWhite Dancing Elephants is a necessary book and one that introduces a gifted voice to contemporary literature.
National Public Radio (NPR)

"[A] pleasingly devious streak, at times reminiscent of Patricia Highsmith, winds through the collection, offsetting the latent melodrama. Shocking late twists and disclosures furnish a sense of unpredictability ... [A] compulsively readable debut."
Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

"How free is anyone, driven as we are by impulses deeper than thought, moving through inextricably connected societies? This debut author has created a host of original scenarios through which to probe this vital questiona question that's both a long-running conversation between East and West and one of the intractable problems of the human condition."
Los Angeles Times

"Chaya Bhuvaneswar is a force in her provocative debut short story collection White Dancing Elephants. These stories center on women of color who resist easy categorization a therapist who is drawn to but disgusted by her young patient, a scholar desperate to justify her affair with her terminally ill best friend's husband, a woman remembering the girlfriend she abandoned when she accepted her arranged marriage. Bhuvaneswar fully inhabits them, breathing life into their dissonant, beautiful, complete selves. Reading it is a thrill, sure to leave you breathless."
Buzzfeed

"Chaya Bhuvaneswar's debut collection maps with great assurance the intricate outer reaches of the human heart. What a bold, smart, exciting new voice, well worth listening to; what an elegant story collection to read and savor"
--Lauren Groff, author of Florida

"In this evocative debut short-story collection, Bhuvaneswar pulls readers deep into the psyches of women who are vulnerable and lost, dangerous and clever: a woman clinging to denial over her miscarriage, an artist with schizophrenia, two women in a doomed love affair."
Huffington Post

"Consider Bhuvaneswar one of the most original feminist voices in literatureyou need to add this short story collection to your cart stat."
My Domaine

You can't miss this bold debut short story collection, which spotlights queer, religious, and immigrant stories about a diverse array of women all over the world. From a South Asian scholar trying to justify her affair with her terminally ill best friend's husband, to a woman who is haunted by Buddha's birth as she grieves a miscarriage, each one of these stories will reach deep into your heart.
--Bustle (Best 11 Books of October)

Read White Dancing Elephants. Short stories, enduring issues. Women both endure violence and wield it against one another in Chaya Bhuvaneswar's debut collection of 17 stories about sexual harassment, a therapist obsessed with her new client, mourning a miscarriage, and more.
--Vulture (Best books chosen by Novelists; Best Fall Books; What to do Sept 30-Oct 15)

Debut Winner of the Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Prize, this volume proves its worth from the start with an affecting piece about a woman wandering about London, having just lost the baby she was carrying. From exploited orphans in India and slaves in Renaissance Portugal to Jagatishwaran ("lord of worlds"), trapped in a corner room by mental illness and parental concern but looking outward, and a young boy wondering of his vanished sister "Where did go? But also: How do I bear it, that she left for good?" even as he reads the fable of a woman bargaining with Death over the husband he sent her, imagination is key. Yet the stories remain firmly grounded in physical detail, boldly exploring moments of oppression and violence, and Bhuvaneswar's persuasive, readable style will keep readers absorbed. VERDICT A strong collection from a writer on the rise.
--Library Journal

"Bhuvaneswar's compelling stories portray diverse characters grappling with shifts in their lives, the complications of their actions, and the impacts of others...a striking collection."
--Booklist

"This award-winning debut boasts virtuoso range and depth. Bhuvaneswar has the mastery of Jhumpa Lahiri and the lyricism of Sandra Cisneros. But the collection also has the bits of quiet joy and mischief reminiscent of Isaac Babel, along with an ability to embrace silent absence, as in Peter Orner's fiction."
- Washington Independent Review of Books

"White Dancing Elephants charms its readers into different worldswith no small help from unexpected twists and robust endings."
-Barrelhouse

"Chaya's stories are dark, weird, often funny, the characters and lifestyles acutely observed, her language sharp as an arrow."
- Apojee Journal

"Similar to Zadie Smith's work in the richness of the writing, the way that entire lives are portrayed within the pages of a short story."
-Drunken Books podcast

"The issues in these storiesexploitation, violence, abuseare not the aberration in our world, but the norm for many, and I am thankful for how Bhuvaneswar approaches them. The women in these stories feel so real to me. The writing is gorgeous, the characters so human, the sense of magic palpable. Highly recommend."
-Rene Denfeld, author of The Child Finder

"[These are stories of] intricate characters who fight back against narratives that limit their existence, natural circumstances or human-made, from birth and death and disease to racism, classicism, and sexism, shuffling together ancient fables with realistic contemporary fiction and a dystopia with robots."
--The Millions

"Whether she's writing about characters grappling with their own mortality and that of the people closest to them or veering into more fantastical realms, Bhuvaneswar roots her work in recognizable (and often wrenching) emotion, making for powerful and compelling fiction."
-Vol 1. Brooklyn

"Bhuvaneswar tackles the intricate interactions of race, class, and sexuality in this enticing debut... The political charge of each relationship is reinforced by Bhuvaneswar's articulation of the simmering drama created by them...The collection is sharp and provocative, and Bhuvaneswar's voice rings true."
--Publishers Weekly

"The 17 stories in this debut…