In When Darkness Falls and Other Stories, Ruskin Bond displays all the qualities of a master storyteller: a deceptively effortless style, an eye for the extraordinary in seemingly humdrum lives, and a deep empathy with his characters. We make the acquaintance of Markham, a war veteran condemned to a lifetime of loneliness by a tragic accident; Susanna, the merry widow who loved each of her seven husbands to death; the sad wife who returns after her death only to find that her husband has moved on to another life and another wife; a simpleton who outwits a crafty ghost; and Kundan Lal, the reckless rake whom women find irresistible. We also go down memory lane with the author, Dehradun of the 1940s and '50s, where there was space for the small errors of young and eccentric lives.Humorous, sad and nostalgic, the stories in the collection are a treat for all Ruskin Bond fans.
