Many and Beautiful Things

A mystery from southern India about a woman, her disappearance, and the thin line between travel and escape.

A woman is missing. At least, according to the young man who turns up at the police station to report it. Strangely, he's never actually met her. Several months ago, the woman, Mudritha, hired him to plan a group trip for her and nine other women to the Indian state of Odisha. But on the day of the trip, she never showed. With little to go on, the police are ready to give up the case, but Vanitha, a jaded policewoman on the brink of leaving her job, continues the investigation in secret. What begins as a search for Mudritha unravels into a portrait of the nine other women, brought together by a Facebook group, Sappho's poetry, and a desire to slip away.

Exquisitely translated from Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil, Jissa Jose's Many and Beautiful Things explores women at the margins of their own lives, wrestling with their traumas, secret ambitions, and an urge to upend everything.