Contributors to the Penguin New Writing in India include well-known names - Amrita Pritam, Satyajit Ray, Shashi Tharoor - alongside distinctive new voices, in a volume that combines the perspective of an anthology with the pioneering freshness of a literary magazine.

Modern classics, such as Mahadevi Varma's famous 1930s essay on feminism, poems by Vinda Karandikar and Sitakanta Mahapatra, a wonderful 'hunger strike' satire by Harishankar Parsai, provide a sense of the varied traditions out of which the bright younger talents in this collection have emerged.

Social and cultural diversity are keynotes and the quality of the translations, drawn from thirteen major subcontinental languages, bears witness, not least, to the great vitality of India's contemporary literary scene.