Description
Suchhanda Chatterjee’s The Silent Matter Stories take readers into a mosaic of lives molded by absence, longing, and the quiet force of what isn’t expressed. This collection of five linked novellas takes place in a wonderfully detailed Indian setting that includes the busy streets of Kolkata, the peaceful tea gardens of Darjeeling, and the cozy interiors of ancestral homes. It explores the fragile spaces between voice and silence, connection and distance.
- “Echoes of an Old Violin”
When aging violinist Arindam Banerjee loses his hearing, the world goes quiet. But in that silence, he starts to hear memories that have been hidden for a long time: his mother’s lullabies, the way his first love laughed, and the sound of a violin string being plucked in bomb shelters during World War II. Chatterjee’s writing here is painfully lovely; it shows how being deaf can be both a loss and a way to find hidden harmonies.
- “The Color of Waiting”
Mira Sen is getting married, but her heart is still tied to a childhood acquaintance who disappeared years ago. As she sits in the parlor wearing untested silk, her portraitist a restless painter with her own secrets paints Mira’s face not as it is, but as it feels: a canvas of pale longing and deep red hunger that she won’t say. Their silent interaction, brushstroke by brushstroke, turns into a sweet conversation that speaks louder than words.
- “Teacups at Dawn”
A young widow named Rupa hosts dawn tea for lonely pickers in the misty tea plantations of Darjeeling before the sun comes up. A migrant worker’s message to his son in Mumbai, an overseer’s terrified confession of guilt, and Rupa’s own vow of silence since her husband’s strange disappearance are all written on the teacups. In the sweet steam, lives come together in unexpected ways.
- “Footprints in Monsoon”
Kunal Roy, a taxi driver, finds a newborn left behind at a flooded bus stop. He has to decide whether to break the law and his own moral code to save the infant’s life. His quiet walk through streets slippery with rain becomes a metaphor for the marks we make on each other’s lives without meaning to.
- “The Last Letter”
Dr. Ananya Mukherjee, an elderly scholar, writes her last letter to her sister, who she hasn’t spoken to in years. In it, she talks of the years of shared joy, betrayal over a family inheritance, and the growing gap of pride between them. As she closes the envelope, the weight of the words she didn’t send becomes clear. This shows how the letters we don’t send can change lives just as much as the ones we do.
Chatterjee is known for her amazing ability to pay attention to sensory details, such the sour taste of roadside tamarind, the delicate flutter of silk saris in church halls, and the metallic buzz of a rain-soaked railway platform. But her best gift is showing us the “silent matter” of being human: the unspoken hopes, the concealed regrets, and the compassion that may be felt in a moment of silence. Each story is its own thing, but when you put them all together, they make a powerful symphony about the echoes of memory, the bravery to speak your mind, and the calm beauty of listening.
About the Author
Suchhanda Chatterjee, The Silent Matter Stories is an ode to the power of silence not as emptiness, but as fertile ground where empathy blooms, where unvoiced emotions take root, and where, ultimately, the human heart learns to speak without uttering a single word.
Product Details
- Title: The Silent Matter Stories
- Author: Suchhanda Chatterjee
- ISBN-13: 9789363958258
- Publisher: Evergreen Press
- Published: April 2025
- Pages: 296
- Binding: Paperpack
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