Author: Temsula Ao
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 120
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9780143066200
Description
Every May something extraordinary happens in the new cemetery of the sleepy little town—a laburnum tree, with buttery yellow blossoms, flowers over the spot where Lentina is buried.
A brave hunter, Imchanok, totters when the ghost of his prey haunts him, till he offers it a tuft of his hair as a prayer for forgiveness. Pokenmong, the servant boy, by dint of his wit, sells an airfield to unsuspecting villagers.
A letter found on a dead insurgent blurs the boundaries between him and an innocent villager, both struggling to make ends meet. A woman’s terrible secret comes full circle, changing her daughter’s and granddaughter’s lives as well as her own.
An illiterate village woman’s simple question rattles an army officer and forces him to set her husband free. A young girl loses her lover in his fight for the motherland, leaving her a frightful legacy. And a caterpillar finds wings.
From the mythical to the modern, Laburnum for My Head is a collection of short stories that embrace a gamut of emotions. Heartrending, witty and riddled with irony, the stories depict a deep understanding of the human condition.
Contents
1. Laburnum for My Head
2. Death of a Hunter
3. The Boy Who Sold an Airfield
4. The Letter
5. Three Women
6. A Simple Question
7. Sonny
8. Flight