The Sentient God

(3)

Language:

English

150

₹ 124.5 (17% off)

Unavailable

Ships within 48 Hours

Free Shipping in India on orders above Rs. 1100


"The Sentient God" is a collection of award-winning Odia short stories written by Santanu Kumar Acharya. The book includes 11 stories that are rooted in folklore and myth and cover a range of genres, including fantasy, humor, horror, crime, and romance. The stories are set in villages, small towns, and cities, and will entertain and lighten the mood while also prompting readers to reflect on deep questions about life. In this book, Acharya experiments with the occult and theoretical postulations in stories like "The Sentient God," "The Witness Tree," "The Dream" and "A Moonlit Night on the College Campus." He was an idealist in his life and never compromised with the establishment, and this is reflected in other stories like "Glasnost," "A Telephone Call," and "August 15," which intend to expose the flaws of the political and bureaucratic system of the present time. Overall, "The Sentient God" cements Acharya's reputation as one of the decade's most inventive and successful Odia short story writers. As all great stories do, these stories have the power to make readers see the world differently.

Read more

ISBN
9789355483447
Pages
88
Avg Reading Time
3 hrs
Age
18+ yrs
Country of Origin
India

Format:

This Book is out of stock
This Book is out of stock

Piracy Free

Express Delivery

Secure Payment

About the Book

"The Sentient God" is a collection of award-winning Odia short stories written by Santanu Kumar Acharya. The book includes 11 stories that are rooted in folklore and myth and cover a range of genres, including fantasy, humor, horror, crime, and romance. The stories are set in villages, small towns, and cities, and will entertain and lighten the mood while also prompting readers to reflect on deep questions about life.

In this book, Acharya experiments with the occult and theoretical postulations in stories like "The Sentient God," "The Witness Tree," "The Dream" and "A Moonlit Night on the College Campus." He was an idealist in his life and never compromised with the establishment, and this is reflected in other stories like "Glasnost," "A Telephone Call," and "August 15," which intend to expose the flaws of the political and bureaucratic system of the present time.

Overall, "The Sentient God" cements Acharya's reputation as one of the decade's most inventive and successful Odia short story writers. As all great stories do, these stories have the power to make readers see the world differently.

Book Details

  • ISBN
    9789355483447
  • Pages
    88
  • Avg Reading Time
    3 hrs
  • Age
    18+ yrs
  • Country of Origin
    India

Recommended For You

Customer Reviews

Be the first to write a review...

(3)

4.67 out of 5

Book

67%
33%

The Sentient God brings eleven award-winning Odia short stories by Santanu Kumar Acharya to English readers, each one rooted in the folklore and myth of Odisha yet venturing into genre territory rarely explored in Indian literary fiction—fantasy, horror, crime, and romance intertwined with occult philosophy. Acharya does not simply retell village tales; he bends them through theoretical postulations, asking what happens when ancient beliefs collide with contemporary anxieties. The collection moves fluidly between rural settings and urban landscapes, charting the persistence of the supernatural in modern Indian life. Published by Sahitya Akademi, these stories entertain with vivid plotting while leaving readers unsettled by questions about fate, consciousness, and the forces that govern existence. The title itself suggests a god that feels, thinks, responds—an entity neither remote nor benevolent, but sentient in ways that complicate devotion.

What kind of reading experience does The Sentient God offer?

This collection delivers an unsettling, intellectually playful experience. Acharya's stories entertain with vivid plots—crime, romance, supernatural encounters—but they rarely resolve neatly. Instead, they linger as puzzles, blending folklore with occult theory to create a mood of productive disquiet. The pacing shifts between the suspenseful and the meditative, rewarding readers who enjoy genre fiction that asks philosophical questions without abandoning narrative pleasure. Expect to finish each story entertained yet slightly off-balance, as if the ground beneath familiar beliefs has shifted.

Who should read The Sentient God and what does it expect of its reader?

  • Readers curious about regional Indian voices beyond the usual metropolitan literary fiction, especially those interested in Odia literature in translation.
  • Fans of speculative and genre fiction who appreciate when fantasy, horror, and crime are treated as vehicles for cultural inquiry, not just entertainment.
  • Anyone drawn to stories where folklore is not nostalgic decoration but a living, destabilising force in contemporary life.
  • Readers willing to sit with ambiguity—these stories rarely deliver moral clarity or tidy endings.

What is the cultural significance of folklore and myth in contemporary Indian fiction?

In contemporary India, where urbanisation and technology rapidly reshape daily life, folklore remains a language through which communities negotiate loss, identity, and belief. Acharya's use of Odia myth is not preservationist—he treats it as a living, mutable archive that can speak to modern anxieties about power, consciousness, and justice. By grounding speculative fiction in regional folklore, the collection resists the homogenising pull of globalised narratives, asserting that India's imaginative worlds are plural, rooted, and intellectually fertile. It shows folklore not as relic but as resource.

What makes Santanu Kumar Acharya's approach to these stories distinctive?

Acharya experiments with the occult and theoretical postulations, treating folklore not as inherited wisdom but as a system open to interrogation. He refuses to separate genre pleasure from intellectual ambition—his stories entertain with crime plots, romantic tension, and supernatural dread while simultaneously probing questions about fate, agency, and the nature of divinity. This dual commitment to storytelling craft and speculative thought distinguishes him from writers who treat folklore either as pure entertainment or as ethnographic material. His voice is playful yet philosophically serious, rooted in Odisha yet formally adventurous.

What does The Sentient God leave the reader with long after finishing it?

The collection leaves behind a heightened awareness of the supernatural as a mode of thinking, not just a narrative device. Readers carry away a sense that the world—especially the world of villages, small towns, and liminal spaces—operates by rules more complex and older than rationalist frameworks allow. Emotionally, the stories cultivate a productive unease: the feeling that devotion, justice, and love are never as straightforward as they seem. Intellectually, they invite ongoing reflection on how myth structures perception, and culturally, they assert the vitality of regional Indian storytelling traditions in global literary conversations.

View on Rachnaye →

Hurry! Limited-Time Coupon Code

WORDPOWER
* Terms and Conditions applied.

Offers

Best Deal

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

whatsapp