India, Feb. 20 -- Admirers of Banu Mushtaq's International Booker-winning Heart Lamp will enjoy Salma's Dark Hours of the Night, translated from the Thamizh by GJV Prasad. Originally published in 2006 as Irandam Jaamangalin Kathai, Dark Hours portrays the lives of women in a small self-isolating Muslim community in Tamil Nadu. This new translation transports readers back to a time when news spread through villages and towns without any telephonic communication and community meant the actual daily gathering together of people.

The author Salma, an MP in the Rajya Sabha, who is also a Tamil Muslim, writes about her own community. As with Heart Lamp, here too, the reader wonders how much has changed for women across India over the decades....