->The Anonymous Earthling at 10:03, 16 June 2020

2020-06-16T10:03:01Z

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{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2018}}
{{Infobox book | 
| name = Laburnum for My Head
| image = Laburnum For My Head.jpg
| caption = First edition
| author = [[Temsüla Ao]]
| country = India
| language = English
| genre = [[Short stories]]
| publisher = [[Penguin India]]
| release_date = 14 November 2009
| media_type = Print (paperback)
| pages = 107 pp
| isbn = 978-0-143-06620-0
| oclc= 500498010
| preceded_by = These Hills Called Home: Stories From A War Zone
}}

'''''Laburnum for My Head''''' (2009) is the collection of eight short stories by Indian author [[Temsüla Ao]]. The stories are about the lives of people from the vibrant and troubled region of [[Nagaland]] in [[northeast India]].

The collection brought its author the 2013 [[List of Sahitya Akademi Award winners for English|Sahitya Akademi Award]] for English, conferred by the [[Sahitya Akademi]], India's National Academy of Letters.<ref>[http://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/sahitya-akademi/pdf/award2013-e.pdf "Poets dominate Sahitya Akademi Awards 2013"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219002741/http://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/sahitya-akademi/pdf/award2013-e.pdf |date=19 December 2013 }}. [[Sahitya Akademi]]. 18 December 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2013.</ref>

==The Stories==
*'''Laburnum For My Head.''' A strange obsession of a woman for laburnum flowers. Unable to successfully grow a laburnum plant on her garden during her lifetime, she wants to have one over her grave.
*'''Death of a Hunter.''' A brave hunter, Imchanok, totters when the ghost of his prey haunts him, till he offers it a tuft of his hair as a prayer for forgiveness.
*'''The Boy Who Sold an Airfield.''' Pokenmong, the servant boy, by dint of his wit, sells an airfield to unsuspecting villagers.
*'''The Letter.''' A letter found on a dead insurgent blurs the boundaries between him and an innocent villager, both struggling to make ends meet.
*'''Three Women.''' A woman's terrible secret comes full circle, changing her daughter's and granddaughter's lives as well as her own.
*'''A Simple Question.''' An illiterate village woman's simple question rattles an army officer and forces him to set her husband free.
*'''Sonny.''' A young girl loses her lover in his fight for the motherland, leaving her a frightful legacy.
*'''Flight.''' A caterpillar finds wings.

==Reception==
The collection received generally favorable reviews. Writing for ''[https://biblio-india.org/index.asp Biblio: A Review of Books]'', Anusua Mukherjee compares the voice of the narrator to that "of an elderly village woman telling the tales, who has been there and seen it all, and in the wisdom born of endurance, can smoothen the jagged edges of experience in the rich texture of the tapestry that is the stories she weaves."<ref name=Biblio2010>{{cite journal |last1=Mukherjee |first1=Anusua |title=Foregrounding the Feminine |journal=Biblio: A Review of Books |date=May-June 2010 |volume=15 |issue=5 & 6 |page=14}}</ref> On a critical note, Mukherjee also goes on to say that the dry writing style which is the strength of Ao's poetry, "parches the prose, making it too flat at times."<ref name=Biblio2010 /> However, writing for ''[[Business Standard]]'', Vineeta Rai suggests that "the simplicity of the language hides the complexity of emotions and themes she has written about, and the stories linger on long after the pages have been turned and the book closed."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Rai |first1=Vineeta |title=Tales from troubled times |url=https://www.business-standard.com/article/beyond-business/tales-from-troubled-times-109120500027_1.html |accessdate=19 February 2020 |agency=Business Standard |date=5 December 2009}}</ref>

==Awards==
* [[List of Sahitya Akademi Award winners for English|Sahitya Akademi Award for English]] - December, 2013

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100502/spectrum/book4.htm ''The Sunday Tribune'' review of ''Laburnum For My Head'']
*[http://www.business-standard.com/article/beyond-business/tales-from-troubled-times-109120500027_1.html Review of ''Laburnum For My Head'']
* Sikhamoni Gogoi. [http://www.the-criterion.com/V3/n1/Gogoi.pdf "An Ecofeminist Reading of Temsula Ao’s ''Laburnum for My Head''"]. ''[http://www.the-criterion.com The Criterion: An International Journal in English]'' (March 2012).

{{Sahitya Akademi Award for English|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:2009 short story collections]]
[[Category:Single-writer short story collections]]
[[Category:Sahitya Akademi Award-winning works]]

Laburnum For My Head - Revision history

->The Anonymous Earthling at 10:03, 16 June 2020