The 21 Indian short stories in the anthology River of Flesh and Other Stories: The prostituted woman in Indian short fiction are about women who are pushed into the most exploitative and sexualised work without choice and agency. The qualifier – prostituted – in the title, not the sanitised 'sex worker', a dubiously empowering term much favoured by NGOs and policy makers for its political correctness, reflects the position taken on the issue.
The stories, from 12 languages, lay bare the violent, volatile, crude and crushing experience of women in this trade of carnal transaction that reeks of violence and inequity. Competent translations from Hindi, Bengali, Konkani, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Assamese, Punjabi, Odia, Urdu, Tamil and one original short story in English (by Kamala Das) give the anthology its pan-Indian heft and credibility.