Swansong (2025) is not meant to be the last work (in a literal meaning) of Vandana Kumari Jena, but certainly her latest collection of fiction from Rupa Publications India Pvt (Ltd), in which the eminent fiction writer cum Retd.IAS officer (1979 Batch) continues her literary journey, offering readers a meditation on endings, identity, and the quiet power of resilience. In this collection, Mrs. Vandana combines the discipline of her bureaucratic background with the emotional depth of a seasoned storyteller. The result is a narrative that feels both precise and profoundly humane— a tapestry woven with the threads of memory, regret, and grace. Swansong includes 24 stories which throw light on human ambition and despair, ephemeral moments of joy and ecstasy and a recurring thread of melancholy running through all of them. Swansong is not the book of events but of emotions; not a collection of plot-driven tales but a character-driven meditation.
The power of the stories lies in suggestion rather than revelation. The occasional restraint that gives the prose elegance can also make it feel distant to those seeking overt drama or confrontation. Its quietness is not emptiness; it is the silence of meaning. ‘The Amish Quilt’ takes us to the quaint Amish country in the US, which Jay visits along with his friend Rita, to buy an Amish quilt for his sister Renee for her birthday. When he enters an Amish store, he is shocked to find that the girl at the counter, Lucy, is his sister’s doppelganger. Their subsequent conversation leads to some startling revelations, and the truth about Renee is revealed.
‘Redemption’ is the tale of a guilt-ridden son who takes a flight from the US to India to see his mother, who is hospitalised, only to find that she has passed away the day before, waiting till the last moment for a glimpse of him. He is overcome with grief as well as guilt. After completing his mother’s last rites in Haridwar, he is shocked to see another woman who looks like his mother. They start talking, and he learns of the hardships she faces in order to survive. He discovers that she is working for a mere pittance in the dharamshala where he is staying. He decides he has found the ideal way to earn redemption for his neglect of his mother. ‘Maya’ is the story of Milind, a young doctor, who is shocked when he receives a letter from a young man, Joy, from the US, claiming that his DNA test from the agency 23&Me shows that he has a 50 per cent match with Milind, therefore they are brothers. Milind denies it immediately, claiming that he is an only child, and that his parents had separated when he was merely a child. Then he visits his Alzheimer stricken father in the Nursing Home, and his father, despite his clouded memories, reveals that Maya was pregnant when they had parted ways.
‘Climb Every Mountain’ is a love story wavering between hope and despair. It is the story of a young man who falls in love with Neha, who has but one passion: to climb mountains. They meet in Sikkim, and the place works its magic on them. Then, like other star-crossed lovers, they are separated. Fate unites them once again, and they get married, only to let the mountains cast them asunder.‘Revathi’ is the story of a man who drowns himself in sadness and lapses into silence when his young daughter Revathi falls from the balcony of his eighth-floor flat and dies. A few months later, his wife Sunidhi informs him of her affair with a colleague and leaves the house, finally shaking him up from his stupor. ‘A Fantasy World’ is the tale of a young maid who pretends to be the lady of the house when her mistress goes on a three-day work trip, leaving her in charge of the house. She invites her boyfriend over for a tryst. Suddenly, everything goes wrong. Her mistress returns unexpectedly as her flight is cancelled, and is shocked to see her house in disarray when she returns home.
‘Childhood Monsters’ is the tale of a young mother who, while talking to her brother, is informed by her nephew that her son is missing from the playground. She rushes to the playground, sees his bicycle and the blood nearby, and recalling a horrific incident in her childhood where two young boys had abducted and killed a toddler in England, galvanizes into action to find her missing son. ‘Dreams Die Last’ is the story of a doctor visiting Italy for her second honeymoon, reminiscing about the first honeymoon when she had witnessed something horrifying during their flight to Rome, the trauma of which she is unable to overcome even after a decade. ‘The Boy Next Door’ is the story of Vanita, who is unable to forgive her friend Gaurav when she meets with an accident and loses her leg, while he walks away without a scratch. ‘The Sound of Silence’ is the story of a non-verbal, autistic boy, locked up in his mute world, who accidentally discovers that he has a flair for drawing and writing, and writes a graphic novel.‘The Wait’ is a tale of a widowed mother who prays for her son as he leaves home to appear for the Medical Entrance Examination, only to learn that the car he was travelling in had met with a serious accident and he is now in a coma. ‘Coming Home’ is the tale of an estranged daughter returning home to her mother after her husband, whom she had married against her parents’ wishes, had beaten her badly. ‘Dying Embers’ is the story of a Public Relations Officer of a bank who visits the hospital to see the wife of a bank employee who had suffered 90 per cent burns, when an unknown assailant had doused her in petrol and burned her. She meets her grief-stricken husband and commiserates with him. The truth about the woman’s death is revealed months later.
‘Cardiac Arrest’ is the tale of a college lecturer who goes to the airport, along with her son and her younger sister, to receive her husband when he returns from Canada after a year. She sees him happily clicking photographs, when suddenly she sees him drop dead after a cardiac arrest, and she is left wondering why. ‘Memories of Happier Times’ is the story of a woman who is nostalgic about Chandni Chowk, her childhood home, and visits it to submit her life certificate in the bank where her pension is credited. While returning, she meets a young boy at the bus stop. After they board the bus, she offers him a paratha, while he gives her a pack of Frooti. But suddenly things go terribly wrong. ‘Up in Smoke’ is the tale of a chain smoker who refuses to heed the warnings of his wife about the dangers of smoking, until he has a severe bout of coughing and is admitted to the hospital. Is it his heart, he wonders, or his lungs? But the truth is something else. And ultimately, he pays a heavy price for it.
‘Roosevelt Island’ is the story of a young widow who comes to New York for six months to babysit her niece and nephew while her sister-in-law attends a course in journalism. On Roosevelt Island, she meets a painter who is also from India. She is drawn to him, but is surprised when his sister reveals the truth about him. ‘Angels of Mercy’ is the story of an old man who dies, but suspicions are raised by his grandson that he did not die due to natural causes but due to an overdose of insulin. ‘Murder I solved’ is the story of a teenage boy with a fractured leg, trapped in a multi-storied apartment during the COVID-19 outbreak, whose uneventful life turns exciting when his next-door neighbour is murdered, and the police inspector seeks his help while solving the case. ‘Why did I forget’ is the story of a nurse who is bone weary while on a12-hour shift in a hospital, all the while assailed by a nagging thought that there was something urgent that she was forgetting, when she sees her daughter arrive in the hospital with a broken arm and finally realises what she was forgetting.
Mrs. Jena’s years in the Indian Administrative Service lend authenticity to her depiction of bureaucratic life. The professional life, she suggests, is only one strand of identity; the private self, often neglected, is where the real reckoning happens. What makes the stories in the book stand out is the refusal to hurry. In an age of fiction dominated by pace and spectacle, Jena trusts her readers to linger, to observe, to reflect. The stories move like life itself — measured, uneven, unpredictable. The pace allows for introspection, not only by the characters but by the reader. There is a certain courage in that — to write slowly in a fast world, to trust that truth unfolds best in quietness. Jena’s prose is remarkably clear, almost meditative in rhythm. She writes without ornamentation, relying instead on precision and observation. Her language carries the restraint of experience — there is no need to prove, only to reveal. Her ability to combine simplicity with a subtext of mysterious substance gives Swansong its emotional resonance. Every scene feels lived, every line believable. She does not chase dramatic effect; instead, she allows empathy to do the work of art. What makes the book stand out is its refusal to hurry. In an age of fiction dominated by pace and spectacle, Mrs. Jena trusts her readers to linger, to observe, to reflect. The stories move like life itself — measured, uneven, unpredictable. The pace allows for introspection, not only by the characters but by the reader. It asks the reader to participate in the emotional labour of understanding.
Mrs. Jena’s stories do not romanticise aging or failure; instead, they present the narratives as integral to wisdom. In doing so, Jena gives voice to a demographic often ignored in modern fiction — we all in the later stages of life, still capable of change, reflection, and grace. Readers familiar with Jena’s earlier works, such as One Rotten Apple and Other Stories or Over the Edge, will recognise her characteristic themes — the intersection of the personal and the institutional, the endurance of women in patriarchal systems, and the moral ambiguities of modern life. Mrs. Jena has an uncanny ability to portray intimacy without sentimentality. Her characters rarely say what they feel, but their silences speak volumes. A letter never sent, a phone call unanswered, a glance across a crowded room — these become the emotional anchors of the stories. Even diary entries, for example, play a significant role in the titular story ‘Swansong’.
Rupa Publishing has honestly done wonderful work as a publisher. The cover page is excellent, and it focuses on the deeply humane nature of the storyteller’s art — it listens, observes, and forgives. What distinguishes her latest book, Swansong, is the enduring grace in its tone of acceptance. While her previous stories often examined struggle and survival, Swansong is about surrender — not defeat, but understanding. It asks whether peace can come not from triumph, but from reconciliation with imperfection.
(The writer is former Affiliate Faculty Virginia Commonwealth University & Retd Head PG English Dept Dum Dum Motijheel College.)