National Network for Equitable Library Service

Junglee (stemming from the Sanskrit root "jungle") is used in India to label the wild, the uncivilized, the untamed. Used most commonly as condemnation or censure, it aims to break the spirit of women yearning for personal power. The female protagonists in these eleven stories recklessly pursue their sensual paths through a complex social world that seeks to shut them out. With wily irreverence and a willful rawness, Kamani pulls back the veil of convention, inch by inch, and draws the reader into the disquieting truth of women's lives, charting territory both intimate and bizarre. This collection of delightful and sometimes provocative stories surprises and arouses. Ginu Kamani's stories are tinged with humor and are often disturbing in their exploration of taboo passions and desires. Kamani is an original storyteller who writes from 'inside' the culture, claiming a rightful space for Indian women to define themselves.—Pratibha Parmar. Junglee Girl is a delightfully seditious collection of tales, like some profane kama sutra of contemporary India.—San Francisco Review of Books. Ginu Kamani, a gifted, savvy writer, combines such precarious, complex elements as class, caste, gender, and eroticism into readable, imaginative, and often hilarious tales.—Publishers Weekly.