Book excerpt: Blue Eclipse is a collection of fourteen stories spanning George Varghese Kakanadan's career that let us catch a glimpse of the brilliance of one of the flagbearers of modernist Malayalam literature. If 'Blue Eclipse' is an untrammelled exploration of surreal ideas, 'Timeworn' is a simple tale of nostalgia that takes shape on a retired school teacher's last day of life. Through an artist torn between his search for enlightenment and the magic of his model's physical beauty, 'Sreechakram' reflects on the Hindu philosophies of dualism and non-duality, while 'Madness' and 'Sunshine' talk about sex and the power of women in completely different circumstances. At once powerful and beautiful, morose and terrifying, liberating and suffocating, this is a collection to savour.