After the success of her collection The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet, Vandana Singh returns to the short story in Ambiguity Machines. Her deep humanism interplays with her scientific background in stories that consider and celebrate this world and others, with characters who try to make sense of the people they meet, what they see, and the challenges they face. An eleventh century poet wakes to find he is an artificially intelligent companion on a starship. A woman of no account has the ability to look into the past. And in ‘Requiem,’ a major new novella, a woman goes to Alaska to try and make sense of her aunt’s disappearance.

Examining the revolutionary potential of speculative fiction, Singh dives deep into the vast strangeness of the universe without and within to explore the ways in which we move through space and time: together, yet always apart.

“A delicate touch and passionately humanist sensibilities sweep through this magnificent collection, which ranges from the near future of our world to eras far away in space and time.”
— Publishers Weekly

“Singh is laying the groundwork attempt to re-write the plots of Chosen Ones, dystopian governments, and self-actualizing hero tropes common to Western literature, where the quest for “the meaning of life” is often seeking a single endpoint, an origin. Singh’s characters wish only to know for the sake of knowing. Life isn’t defined by linear time, it is the richness of experience.”
— Aerogram

Vandana Singh was born and raised in New Delhi, and currently lives in the United States near Boston, where she professes physics and writes. Her short stories have appeared in numerous venues and several Best of Year anthologies, including the Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy. She is the author of the ALA Notable book Younguncle Comes to Town (Young Zubaan/Puffin India, 2004) and a previous short story collection, The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet and Other Stories (Zubaan/Penguin India, 2009).

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Already a name in the world of science fiction and fantasy writing, Vandana Singh brings her unique imagination to a wider audience with her first collection of stories.

In the title story, a woman tells her husband of her curious discovery: that she is inhabited by small alien creatures. In another, a young girl returning home through the streets of Delhi comes across a mysterious tetrahedron: is it a spaceship? Or a secret weapon?

Each story in this fabulous collection opens up new vistas—from outer space to the inner world—and takes the reader on an incredible journey to both

“A most promising and original author.”
— Ursula K LeGuin, author of The Earthsea Trilogy

“Read [this collection] in homage to the first Indian writer to make a serious mark in the SF world; or read it simply because she writes with such a beguiling touch of the strange.”
— Nilanjana Roy, The Business Standard

VANDANA SINGH was born and raised in New Delhi, and currently lives in the United States near Boston, where she writers and is a professor of physics. Her short stories have appeared in numerous venues and several Best of Year anthologies, including the Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy. She is the author of the ALA Notable book Younguncle Comes to Town (Young Zubaan/Puffin India, 2004) and a second short story collection, Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories (Zubaan 2018).

When Younguncle and his family head off on a Himalayan holiday, you know the hills are never going to be the same again. Carrying a message from the monkeys of the plains to their mountain-dwelling relatives, Younguncle and the three children embark on a series of hilarious encounters at the gloomy, mysterious and haunted Hotel Pine-Away.

As Younguncle chats with the monkeys, debates the true nature of reality with an off-beat sect of Quantum Banana Spiritualists, the fate of the picturesque little valley hangs in the balance. Who is the strange Rat-girl, who charms the rodents out of their hotel? Can the children and their eccentric uncle thwart the plans of that 50-Lakh Bridegroom, Pradeep Dalmakhni? Can Younguncle help Dalmakhni’s intended bride to escape a fate worse than death? Or has he, finally, met his match?

For all those who have been enchanted by Younguncle in the first book, this new adventure will be a delight. And if you haven’t met him before—Younguncle will be a friend for life!

VANDANA SINGH was born and raised in New Delhi. As a teenager, she acquired a life-long interest in peace and environmental issues, and was one of the founders of the environmental NGO, Kalpavriksh. She obtained a doctoral degree in Physics from the United States where she now lives with her family, teaching physics in a local college, and writing fiction for children, and science fiction/fantasy for adults.

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An excellent choice for fans of stories featuring strange goings-on, like stories by Roald Dahl, or Ruskin Bond’s Rusty.

Vandana Singh’s first collection of ‘Younguncle’ stories, featuring every family’s favourite relative, has become something of a classic since it was first published in 2004.

These charming, off-beat, funny stories are now available in Hindi in a lively and readable translation.

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Younguncle in Hindi! An excellent choice for fans of stories featuring strange goings-on, like stories by Roald Dahl, or Ruskin Bond’s Rusty.

A long time ago, a young prince, the heir to a great South-Asian kingdom, wielded Siva’s mighty bow and won the heart of a brave princess.

The story of what happened next to the married couple, the Ramayana, told and re-told countless times over the centuries, begins where most stories end. The twenty-five stories in Breaking the Bow take a similar courageous leap into the unknown. Inspired by the Ramayana and its cultural importance, the anthology dares to imagine new worlds.

Here you will find magic realist and surreal stories. Robot and cyberpunk stories. Fantasy and science fiction stories. Hard-to-classify stories.

Stories by some of the best writers in contemporary south-Asian fiction, including Abha Dawesar, Rana Dasgupta, Priya Sarukkai Chabria, Tabish Khair, Kuzhali Manickavel, Mary Anne Mohanraj and Manjula Padmanabhan. Stories not only from India, Sri Lanka and Thailand, but also Dubai, Israel, Holland, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.

Breaking the Bow is a collection of brilliant, original and beautifully told tales, guaranteed to enlighten and entertain.