Disinheritance

Vox, A Best Book of the Year

“The short stories in this posthumous collection offer a useful reminder of the Merchant Ivory scriptwriter’s talent for slipping into the perspectives of others.” —Colin Dwyer, NPR

“To my eyes, however, the human follies [Jhabvala] evokes are all too realistic. To spy on a private world is to observe the truths people most want to keep hidden. Jhabvala disclosed those truths with candor, sensitivity and wit.” —Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal

“Reading [Jhabvala’s] collected short stories in the new volume Disinheritance feels like communing with the ghost of a strange and shimmering past . . . These stories are strange and beautiful to read. The sentences are affectless and curiously polite, as though to mask the irony and the fury running below them . . . What a strange book to read. I’m so glad that I did.” —Constance Grady, Vox

“Remarkable . . . The acuity of Jhabvala’s observations and the clarity of her prose make this collection exhilarating . . . Brilliant, unsparing examinations of the human condition in all its variety.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“This posthumous story collection by Merchant Ivory scriptwriter Jhabvala (1927–2013), who won the Booker Prize for her novel Heat and Dust, demonstrates the author’s acerbic brilliance and her proclivity to write from the perspectives of other cultures . . . Throughout, she offers canny insights into the clash between modernity and tradition. Readers will find plenty to admire.” —Publishers Weekly