India, June 18 -- Can fiction slip underneath the news headlines to show us how individuals are affected by social and political forces beyond their control? Such is the task that the so-called state-of-the-nation novel sets itself, using its characters to explore systemic issues such as class divides, societal changes and economic shifts.

Anita Nair's latest work, a collection of six short stories titled Why I Killed My Husband, was born of a similar notion. All the stories, she writes in her introduction, were inspired by contemporary issues. They were sparked off by listening to Scottish author Ian Rankin speak of the purpose of state-of-the-nation-novels and realising that this was "a new way of seeing the world around us".

Her inte...