News From Nowhere Radical & Community Bookshop

• home
• browse books
• book details:

The Book Of Desire

by Meena Kandasamy - £14.99  Galley Beggar Press (2023)
hardback    ISBN 13: 9781913111366 | ISBN 10: 1913111369

‘One of literature’s most fiery and unclassifiable polemicists.’ —The Guardian
 
The Book Of Desire is the award-winning (Women’s Prize-shortlisted) writer Meena Kandasamy’s luminous translation of the Kāmattu-p-pāl, a 2000-year-old song of female love and desire.
 
Written by the poet Thiruvalluvar, the Kāmattu-p-pāl is the third part of the Thirukkural – one of the most important texts in Tamil literature. The most intimate section of this great work – it is also, historically, the part that has been most heavily censored. Although hundreds of male translations of the text have been published, it has also only ever been translated by a woman once before.
 
The Book Of Desire is Meena’s own feminist reclamation of the Kāmattu-p-pāl. With her trademark wit, lyricism and passionate insight, she weaves a magic spell: taking the reader on a journey through 250 kurals, organised under separate headings – ‘The Pleasure of Sex’, ‘Renouncing Shame’, ‘The Delights of Sulking’ – the result is a fresh, vital, and breath-taking translation. This is a book that fizzes with energy, is full of delight – and a translation that conveys powerful messages about female sensuality, agency, and desire. It is a revolution 2000 years in the making.

(Price & availability last checked: April 2023)

Order by email

×

The Book Of Desire - by Meena Kandasamy

Please fill in the order form, & we will reply as soon as we can to confirm your order & tell you how long it will take. Choose between collection from our bookshop or mail-order, for which we charge postage at cost, at current Royal Mail rates

Select type of order: Collect & pay in the shop - I live in or can visit Liverpool Mail-order - send me a card payment link Mail-order - I will pay another way & give details in the notes section

Your name:

Please fill out this field.

Your email address

Please check carefully that you have entered your email correctly

Please fill out this field.

Your phone number (required for order as back-up contact method):

Please check carefully that you have entered your phone number correctly.

Please fill out this field.

Notes (optional - for additional message or information about your order):

Close

Enquire about this book

×

The Book Of Desire

by Meena Kandasamy

Your name:

Please fill out this field.

Your email address

Please check carefully that you have entered your email correctly

Please fill out this field.

Your phone number (optional):

Your message:

Please fill out this field.

(optional) If you are interested in ordering this book, would your order be for collection or mail-order? Select type of order : Collect from the shop - I live in or can visit Liverpool Mail-order - send by post

Close

Featured book: Recommended Fiction & Poetry for Yuletide 2023!,
In booklists: Women Poets, Black and Asian Poets,
In categories: Feminism & Women, Poetry & Writing,