Barefoot and Pregnant

Barefoot And Pregnant, a collection of short stories, dares to explore dysfunctional motherhood. While attempting to look beyond the conventional, it uncovers, along the way, a victim of gang-rape, to whom the baby means legal advice, a doomed woman’s last fling, the imminently pregnant beggar at traffic lights, the loss of a child either by disappearance or by death, surrogate mothers and even a man who longs to give birth.

Flinging away stereotypes, first-time author Shinie Antony has listed uterine woes with a dark and biting humour. She won a Commonwealth Broadcasting Association story writing prize in 2001 for the surreal Somewhere in Gujarat, a translated version of which appeared in the Malayala Manorama on Oct 18, 2001, and is in the present collection asMunnu. This is her first book of short stories. She worked in Kochi, Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai with The Indian Skeptic, Mid-Day, The Economic Times and The Financial Express.