The Book I Managed To Miss

Over last 70 years, say since my early school days I have been a diligent and voracious reader, in my mother tongue Sindhi and my prime infatuation English and of course Hindi, Urdu and Gujarati fiction and translations there of in English.

Yesterday during the monsoon cleaning of my book racks I stumbled upon a paperback edition of " Six Great Modern Short Novels". The inside cover had an inscription - Nirmal Kumar Dhadhal 1955. I immediately and nostalgically recalled the gentleman. He was the enigmatic ruler of an erstwhile small state in Saurashtra, India. He had settled down in Mount Abu with his privy purse to educate his children and lead a sedate life.I came in touch with him when he had visited my curio shop. Somewhat depressed, he was impressed by a couple of  books lying on my counter and marveled as to how I combined serious reading with my vocation.

The next day he returned, bringing with him a copy of " Six Great Modern Short Novels " and handing it to me shyly confided that he had bought the book for the heck of it but never got around to reading it and that I should read the same. I took the book home but lost touch with its owner. Some days later rumour circulated that Nirmal Kumar had disappeared under mysterious circumstances,leaving his family distraught. Side by side, the book was either misplaced or lost in my array of unread books , thus I managed to miss the extraordinary read for around 57 years.

Finding the book after so many years is the best thing that has happened to me lately,as I had been hard up for suitable reading material. I have started with ' The Overcoat' by Nikolay Gogol. It is an immortal and exhaustive short work of fiction set in Russia and so must be the rest with the following titles:
The Dead  by James Joyce.
Billy Budd Foretopman by Herman Melville.
Noon Wine by Katherine Ann Porter.
The Pilgrim Hawk by Glenway Wescott.
The Bear by William Faulkner.