An edition of The invisibles (1996)

The invisibles

a tale of the eunuchs of India

  • 3 Want to read

My Reading Lists:

Create a new list

Check-In

×Close
Add an optional check-in date. Check-in dates are used to track yearly reading goals.
Today

  • 3 Want to read

Buy this book

Last edited by MARC Bot
August 4, 2024 | History
An edition of The invisibles (1996)

The invisibles

a tale of the eunuchs of India

  • 3 Want to read

In 1984, Zia Jaffrey traveled to Delhi, and there glimpsed a group of cross-dressing men who had walked, uninvited and unannounced, into a wedding. They sang out of tune, hurled insults at the guests, and were finally paid to leave. She learned that these often-castrated, elusive figures were known as the hijras - "neither male nor female" - or the eunuchs, of India.

They existed in thousands in every major city, were tolerated yet reviled, thought to bring good luck to newlyweds and newborns, yet also called extortionists and kidnappers.

Jaffrey set off on a journey to understand the forces of caste, poverty, sexual ambiguity, and the tradition itself that had allowed the hijras to persist into the modern age. In an investigation that points to her own sense of "otherness" in relation to Indian culture - she was born in New York of Indian extraction - Jaffrey delved into the mysteries of the hijras' closed world, uncovering details about their past, their daily lives, and their complex social structures.

In this spellbinding book - at once travelogue, history, interview, and fiction - Jaffrey invents a hybrid voice to match her subject, as she meets journalists, police commissioners, detectives, and doctors and tries to trace the hijras' tradition through layers and layers of obfuscation and denial, as well as through Hindu, Muslim, and British history. She is drawn into a labyrinthine network of connections, coverups, and contradictions as mysterious as India itself.

Publish Date
Publisher
Pantheon Books
Language
English
Pages
293

Buy this book

Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: The Invisibles
The Invisibles
December 15, 1998, Random House Value Publishing
Hardcover in English
Cover of: The invisibles
The invisibles: a tale of the eunuchs of India
1998, Phoenix, Orion Publishing Group, Limited
in English
Cover of: The invisibles
The invisibles: a tale of the eunuchs of India
1998, Vintage Departures
in English - 1st Vintage Departures ed.
Cover of: Invisibles
Invisibles: A Tale of the Eunuchs of India
1997, Orion Publishing Group, Limited
in English
Cover of: Invisibles
Invisibles
1997, Orion Publishing Group, Limited
in English
Cover of: Invisibles
Invisibles
1997, Orion Publishing Group, Limited
in English
Cover of: Invisibles
Invisibles: A Tale of the Eunuchs of India
1997, Orion Publishing Group, Limited
in English
Cover of: The invisibles
The invisibles: a tale of the eunuchs of India
1996, Pantheon Books
in English

Add another edition?

Book Details


Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references (287-293).

Published in
New York

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
305.9/066
Library of Congress
HQ449 .J35 1996

The Physical Object

Pagination
ix, 293 p. :
Number of pages
293

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL975334M
Internet Archive
invisiblestaleof0000jaff_a5k3
ISBN 10
0679415777
LCCN
96012384
OCLC/WorldCat
34355862
Library Thing
18254
Goodreads
1224810

Links outside Open Library

Community Reviews (0)

Feedback?
No community reviews have been submitted for this work.

Lists

This work does not appear on any lists.

History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON
August 4, 2024 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
August 18, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
August 6, 2021 Edited by New York Times Bestsellers Bot Add NYT review links
February 28, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot remove fake subjects
December 9, 2009 Created by WorkBot add works page