The Lady in the Moonlight by Lathish Shankar

The Lady in the Moonlight, by Lathish Shankar, is a collection of five short vignettes, both of which intertwine love and death in a way that’s absolutely stunning.

Each story takes on a life of its own, as each character recalls their bittersweet past, only to find themselves slowly falling off the boundary of reality. From a lost love longing for her beloved back, to a young man who never fully lived until he lost his partner to society, each of the words are laced with an elegant sorrow that seem to take on a life of their own. It’s enchanting as it is dark, as readers will enjoy the author’s characters in their brief, yet beautiful lives.

The concepts are morbid, as well as determined to show the degradation of love, whether it be romantic or familial. One of the stories that stuck out to me was “Goodbye Papa.” The main protagonist had Parkinson’s, and because of that, he wasn’t able to do anything. His family didn’t love him, simply because he couldn’t do anything. In other words, he was being sentenced to death by the very people that were supposed to care about him.

Nonetheless, the book wasn’t perfect. The syntax could use a bit of work, and I would’ve liked the stories to be a bit more fleshed out. Still, the book was enjoyable. I liked the twists and turns of the vignettes, and that it emphasized on the pain of dancing near the edge of death. As such, I would give the book a rating of a 3.5 out of 5.0 stars, and recommend it to those who enjoy the darker side of literature.