The Habit of Love

All in all, an amazing book replete with the complexities and fragilities of a woman’s heart and mind. The Habit of Love has sown in me the seed of longing, not just for more of Namita Gokhale’s works but also for more in this genre.

– Rishi Goel, Women’s Web

The Habit of Love is a collection of stories about the inner lives of women. Some of these women inhabit the ancient past, some the present day but they share the whimsical humour with which they speak of themselves. Journalist Madhu Sinha strikes up a friendship with a young man the same age as her indifferent children; a messenger swan relates the story of the doomed lovers Nala and Damayanti; Vatsala Vidyarthi suspects her one night stand of stealing her money. Delicately poised between irony and grief, The Habit of Love is both elegant and acute, arch and melancholic. In these moving stories she displays both sympathy and understanding as she unveils the workings of a woman’s heart.