EAST & WEST – Stories of India

In this captivating book, contrasting and complementary aspects of Indian culture are explored through stories of seekers, and stories of ordinary Indians; stories of heroes, frauds, and victims; stories set in America, and stories set in India.

And you can listen on YouTube here to Catherine Ann Jones discussing her life, her career, and her latest book. East & West: Stories of India

You can also read one of the stories here: Short fiction: The unusual friendship between Aziz, who is blind, and Rukmini, who is deaf (scroll.in)

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About the Author

Award-winning author and playwright, as well as a screenwriter and writing consultant, Catherine Ann Jones is also an actor who has played major roles in some fifty-five plays on Broadway and off-Broadway. During that time, she became disappointed by the lack of good roles for women, which motivated her to write the play, On the Edge, about Virginia Woolf and her struggle with madness in a world gone mad with Hitler and WWII. The play won a National Endowment for the Arts Award.

Eleven of her plays, including Calamity Jane (both play and musical), The Women of Cedar Creek, and Freud’s Oracle, have won multiple awards and are produced both in and out of New York.

Her films include The Christmas Wife (Jason Robards & Julie Harris) which had four Emmy nominations, Unlikely Angel (Dolly Parton), and the popular TV series, Touched by an Angel.

She is the author of Remarkable Women: Four Plays (2023), and six earlier books, Heal Your Self with Writing (Nautilus Book Award 2014), The Way of Story: the craft & soul of writing, What Story Are You Living, Freud’s Oracle, Buddha and the Dancing Girl: A Creative Life and True Fables: Stories from Childhood.

Based in Ojai, California, she leads The Way of Story and Heal Your Self with Writing workshops throughout the United States, Europe, Middle East, and Asia. For more info: www.wayofstory.com

Her connection with India began with her marriage to Raja Rao,  who is usually clubbed together with R. K. Narayan and Mulk Raj Anand as the three authors who first established the international reputation of Indian fiction in English. Catherine’s connection with India continued with a year as a Fulbright Research Scholar to India, and continues through the annual visits that she has made for most of her life to India, where she spends substantial amounts of time.

India is in fact her spiritual home – as she explains in her Foreword to her latest book, a collection of short stories exploring diverse and contrasting aspects of India, which was commissioned by Pippa Rann Books & Media for the 75^th anniversary of India’s independence.

That collection of short stories by Catherine is titled East & West: Stories of India.

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Interviews and other mentions

June the 18th, 2024, at 6 p.m., Santa Barbara, California –  Chaucer’s Bookshop organised and hosted an event to have #CatherineAnnJones speak about her collection of stories, East & West: Stories of India: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=579K_-rVz2c

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Catherine Ann Jones knows India and loves its people with the deepest understanding. She writes with the clarity and delicacy of butterfly wings.

ROSHAN SETH, ACTOR

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Unique, wonderfully written, and enchanting. Not only worth reading, but reading again, and reading aloud to others.
RAVI RAVINDRA, PhD, AUTHOR OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA:
A GUIDE TO NAVIGATING THE BATTLE OF LIFE

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The Catherine Ann Jones dharma is storytelling.
R. E. MARK LEE, AUTHOR OF WORLD TEACHER: THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF J. KRISHNAMURTI

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… found myself in each story living the situation and the outcome.
MEENA KAUSHIK PhD., CEO OF QUANTUM CONSUMER SOLUTIONS, BANGALORE

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Each of these 15 stories is unique, each of them could be a film, and each will live on in your memory. 

RATNA JOSHI, in INDIA’S LARGEST-CIRCULATION ENGLISH NEWSPAPER, THE TIMES OF INDIA

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If you’re in search of a holiday read, you must get your hands on this book.

JAISMITA ALEXANDER, in THE TELEGRAPH, INDIA

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An interview with Ashutosh Garg is at: https://youtu.be/gD0GuVh_GQI

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A discussion about her book at the India International Center, New Delhi, starts at 1 minute and 26 seconds into this recording:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IGTwRNNIhg

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A feature article on eShe, an independent Indian digital media platform that amplifies women’s voices and stories about our shared humanity, is at:
https://eshe.in/2023/12/15/catherine-ann-jones-east-and-west-stories-of-india/

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A brief review is at https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/books-and-art/061223/catherine-ann-jones-east-west-stories-india.html

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Another brief review is at: https://www.telegraphindia.com/my-kolkata/try-this/read/discover-indian-culture-with-east-west-by-catherine-ann-jones/cid/1985800

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An excerpt from one of the short stories in the book, “The Cat Who Would Not Die”, is at https://www.fridaywall.com/cultural-odyssey-east-west-tales/

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