Mosquito and Other Stories — Premendra Mitra

Mosquito and Other Stories brings together twelve of Premendra Mitra's most popular Ghana-da tales. These stories within stories, told in first person by one of the denizens of the mess hall, straddle the thin line between make-believe and truth. Ghana-da's bizarre narratives draw upon science, history and geography to conjure up exotic locales, other worlds and peoples, their habits, lifestyles and languages. In 'Mosquito' Ghana-da saves mankind from a new and deadly breed of the insect; in 'Pebble' we find him trading in sandalwood in the New Hebrides; 'Glass' and 'Duck' explore nuclear science; in 'Hole' he tells his spellbound audience about the Fourth Dimension; and in 'Hat' he is dragged over Mount Everest by a runaway yeti. And that's just the beginning - These accounts of travel and heroism, born of wild imagination and sound knowledge, make the teller and his tales simply irresistible.