Mumbai-based author, Murzban F. Shroff (author of Breathless in Bombay; Waiting for Jonathan Koshy, and Fasttrack Fiction), is set to publish his fourth book, ‘Third Eye Rising’, (with New York based literary publisher – Spuyten Duyvil), comprising ten full-length stories, exploring the neurodiversity of India through two of the country’s most significant aspects – family ties and spiritual faith. All stories have been published in reputed international journals and three have received the Pushcart Prize nomination, the highest award for the short story in the US.

Born of Shroff’s travels to Indian villages, ‘Third Eye Rising’ covers issues like greed, dowry, caste exploitation, child apathy, migrant identities, and personal loss. The collection also captures the joy and vitality of Indian festivals like Diwali and Makar Sankranti.

Six-times Pushcart Prize nominee and Commonwealth Prize-shortlisted author, Shroff says, “Third Eye Rising is my attempt to make visible the lives of the invisible, to bridge the rural-urban divide, and show the eternal unity of humankind.” It enthralls with unwavering epiphany and steadfast narrative gaze. Language flows lyrically, entrancing the inward eye. In an unjust, charred world, these stories offer compassionate, luminous spirit.

Murzban F. Shroff has published his fiction with over 65 literary journals in the US and UK, and is the winner of the John Gilgun Fiction Award. He is much appreciated amidst the international author fraternity, with Madison Smartt Bell, author of Barking Man, All Souls’ Rising, and Anything Goes, vouching, “Murzban Shroff’s fiction is steeped in the most ancient of Indian folkways, and at the same time engaged with the various shocks of twenty-first century modernization. These stories treat their subjects with Chekhovian simplicity, and also partake of Chekhov’s eerie transparency: that sense that he has given the reader everything without seeming to do anything at all. Third Eye Rising is the best work to date by a writer whose gifts have always been remarkable.”

Third Eye Rising releases in the US, UK and Europe on 22nd January, 2021 and can be ordered on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Third-Eye-Rising-Murzban-Shroff/dp/1952419026).