The Collector's Wife

By Mitra Phukan,

Book cover of The Collector's Wife

Book description

This is the story of Rukmini who is married to the District Collector of a small town in Assam, and teaches English literature in the local college. On the surface, her life is settled and safe in the big, beautiful bungalow on the hill above the cremation ground, seemingly untouched…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The Collector's Wife as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I am partial to any fiction set in my part of the world, the cultural hodgepodge called Northeast India. And Mitra Phukan is one of the region's best novelists.

Here, a bored and lonely college lecturer is washed up in a small town in Assam. With her husband often away on official duties, she quietly observes the mediocrity of the middle-class lives around her, even as the sectarian strife of the 1980s flickers in the background and then comes devastatingly close.

A slow-paced novel about violent change, hidden desires, and the strangeness of teaching canonical English literature in a setting…

Want books like The Collector's Wife?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Collector's Wife.

Browse books like The Collector's Wife

Book cover of Where the Gods Dwell: Thirteen Temples and Their (Hi)stories
Book cover of The Forest Beneath the Mountains
Book cover of Teatime for the Firefly

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,201

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in India, Mumbai, and the British Raj?

India 483 books
Mumbai 37 books
The British Raj 30 books