The Widow and the Xir — Indrapramit Das

Hunter, worker, widow and mother, Sanih struggles to overcome the sorrow left in the wake of her husband Namir's death. Beyond the dunes, Namir's reincarnation, a young xir, a desert ghost, finds itself drawn to a single human and her son, haunted by memories of a past life with them. When Sanih's grief begins to call the ghost to her tribe's travelling camp, Sanih must find a way to put his death behind her or endanger them all.

“A neat fantasy world and a strong story of love… Recommended.” -- Lois Tilton, Locus Online

Indrapramit Das is a writer and artist from Kolkata, India. His fiction has appeared in publications including Clarkesworld, Asimov's and Apex Magazine, as well as the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection (St. Martin's Press), Aliens: Recent Encounters (Prime Books) and Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond (Rosarium Publishing). He is a grateful graduate of the 2012 Clarion West Writers Workshop and a recipient of the Octavia E. Butler Scholarship Award to attend the former. He completed his MFA at the University of British Columbia and is currently in Vancouver working as a freelance writer, artist, editor, critic, TV extra, game tester, tutor, would-be novelist, and aspirant to adulthood.

This story originally appeared in Apex Magazine in July 2011.