Histories of Memories

Histories of Memories, by Shome Dasgupta

This hybrid collection of short prose pieces and Elliott Smith-inspired illustrations carries readers along a thin thread of memory—whether their own or the author’s past, it becomes difficult to say. Shome Dasgupta’s latest book recalls days at the movies, family heartache, and other personal experiences through soundtracks, daydreams, and attempts to remember what lingers from the spectrums of time. Whether pondering the vulnerability of a turtle or reflecting on his own fragilities, Dasgupta’s dreamy prose lets us into a series of fragments that depict a world broken yet beautiful. Histories of Memories is a testament to the burdens as well as the delights of our own narratives—how they keep us tied to each other whether we realize it or not.

Shome Dasgupta's novel The Seagull And The Urn was published by HarperCollins India, and it was republished by Hachette/Headline Accent in the UK as The Sea Singer. His experimental i am here And You Are Gone won the 2010 OW Press Fiction Contest. His books include the novels The Muu-Antiques (Malarkey Books), Tentacles Numbing (Thirty West), and Cirrus Stratus (Spuyten Duyvil), an experimental book of prose, Spectacles (word west), and a poetry collection, Iron Oxide (Assure Press). His writing has appeared in McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Jabberwock Review, New Orleans Review, New Delta Review, American Book Review, Arkansas Review, Magma Poetry, and elsewhere. His fiction and poetry have also been anthologized in Best Small Fictions, The &Now Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing, and Poetic Voices Without Borders 2. His work has been featured as a storySouth Million Writers Award Notable Story, and his stories and poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions, Best Of The Net, Best Microfiction, and the Orison Anthology. He lives in Lafayette, LA, and can be found online at shomedome.com and @laughingyeti.
 

Praise for Histories of Memories:

“In the vulnerable, gorgeously written, and brilliantly illustrated Histories of Memories, Shome Dasgupta offers the reader an unflinching account of love and loss, failure and redemption, pleasure and pain. Dasgupta layers locations—Kolkata, Edmonton, Munich—with soundtracks—Dr. Dolittle, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Magnolia—and family—mother, father, uncle, brother, with friends, lifelong and long gone: a mixtape filled with his distinctive lyricism. On this carefully curated journey, where he sometimes takes our hands, leading us along winding paths, and other times flings us far out into space or drops us deep into a swirl of firing synapses, Dasgupta is always pushing us and himself to uncover, discover, recover meaning and, ultimately, memory.”

—Melissa Llanes Brownlee, author of Hard Skin and Kahi and Lua

“Memories can coax and soothe. They can break us in an instant or help to heal deep wounds. It makes no difference if they are whole or fragmented; memories pull us around in time, whether we’re prepared for that journey or not, and bring us straight back into the sounds and tastes and feelings and dreams that make us who we are. That’s exactly the force harnessed by Shome Dasgupta’s new collection of stories, Histories of Memories. Page by page, these stories transport, restore, nourish, and remind. They bring us chocolates and curries, mud and family, songs and sights from all over the planet. More than anything, they show us humanity. And for that, for this author, I am truly grateful.”

—Jack B. Bedell, author of Against the Woods’ Dark Trunks, Poet Laureate of Louisiana, 2017–2019

“Shome Dasgupta charts a sometimes surreal and always beautiful crossing of time and space. From a dead cow on the side of a dirt road to the infinite cosmos of space, Histories of Memories spirals through tales of joy, loss, and grief, suggesting that loss is not an end. The past is always accessible, even as it shapeshifts on the altars of remembrance. Dasgupta reveals the radiant potentials of short form storytelling. His stories and sketches operate with their own internal logic, their own form and pacing. Each is its own testament to the memory monuments created by a dream, a song on the radio, a favorite childhood book, or a sip of Indian cola. In this collection, nothing settles. Every page is a new arrival that opens a door to a new destination already changing, and every new entryway is exactly where you want to be.”

—Ra’Niqua Lee, author of For What Ails You

Details:

• Trim size: 5" x 8"
• Publication date: October 17, 2023
• ISBN: 978-1-960215-08-6
• 126 pages

Review in Atticus Review

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