Part travelogue, part memoir, and part commentary, Writer’s Postcards is a collection of essays that examine imagination and culture through the lens of geography. A flaneuse and person of the world, Dipika Mukherjee takes readers through various encounters from her highly mobile life: the lugubrious literature of Brazil; the linguistic diversity in China and Tibet; and meeting the Dalai Lama while travelling as a lone woman through New Delhi. She examines the political unrest in Myanmar after the brief international reach of Burmese books; weighs in on Chicago’s literary landmarks and famous writers; reminisces on the languid feasting of Diwali celebrations at Port Dickson by the Malaysian-Bengali community; and finds new notions of home, identity, and belonging in the Netherlands-among many others.
Thought-provoking and unabashed in its entirety, this is a collection of essays that goes beyond the personal and communal to examine issues of international concern.
Reviews
Pointedly insightful, yet filled with warmth, Dipika Mukherjee’s thoughtful writing illuminates the far flung communities she moves through. Writer’s Postcards is a deeply personal, acutely observed collection of travel, political, and familial relations. The perfect book to bring on a trip, or to transport the armchair traveler around the world for a few magical hours.
– Yangsze Choo, New York Times bestselling author, The Ghost Bride and The Night Tiger.
Slipping easily between disparate worlds, Dipika Mukherjee’s quiet, guileless prose elicits deep and powerful emotions, as do her words that speak of heartfelt, howling, reckless, remarkable encounters.
– Bettina Chua Abdullah, Author of To Nourish with Love, and editor of Telltale Food.
To read the varied essays in Writer’s Postcards is to be transported, to be injected with the author’s enthusiasm– for travel and learning, for explorations of one’s own history and origins. While observing ancient traditions and learning about local histories, Dipika Mukherjee recounts her own coming into herself as a woman, writer, and solo traveler who is “choosing her own danger.” Told in unvarnished and artful prose, the author is ever aware of position, privilege, power, and the universal right for freedom. These twenty-seven brief essays are as insightful as they are intrepid and entertaining.
– Rachel Swearingen, author of How to Walk on Water and Other Stories.
From Kolkata to Kuala Lumpur, through encounters with the everyday as well as with the divine, Dipika Mukherjee’s words are always transportive yet a balm for the soul. Even if you have never wandered further than the end of your garden, she will, through her stories, enable you to catch glimpses of a beautiful, colourful world filled with character and characters…all of which will make you ache with longing to travel at the first opportunity.
– Diana Khoo, Executive Editor of Options + Haven, The Edge Malaysia.