Ambai Books

A Kitchen in the Corner of the House collects twenty-five gem-like stories on motherhood, sexuality, and the body from the innovative and perceptive Tamil writer Ambai. In A Kitchen in the Corner of the House, Ambai's narrators are daring and courageous, stretching and reinventing their homes, marriages, and worlds. With each story, her expansive voice confronts the construction of gender in Tamil literature. Piecing together letters, journal entries, and notes, Ambai weaves themes of both self-liberation and confinement into her writing. Her transfixing stories often meditate on motherhood, sexuality, and the liberating, and at times inhibiting, contours of the body.

Exploring the fluidity of gender identity, the narrative delves into the complexities of love and self-perception. The protagonist, embodying both valor and vulnerability, challenges traditional gender roles by asserting her identity as a man while engaging with a character who expresses feminine traits. This thought-provoking examination invites readers to reconsider societal norms surrounding masculinity and femininity, ultimately celebrating the spectrum of human experience and the interplay between gender and love.