It is the story of Devdas and Paro, childhood sweethearts who are torn apart when Devdas is sent away to Calcutta by his father, the local zamindar. When Devdas returns to his village, now a handsome lad of nineteen, Paro asks him to marry her. But Devdas is unable to stand up to parental opposition to the match and rejects the proposition. Stunned, Paro agrees to marry an elderly widower.

Devdas returns to Calcutta, but every waking hour of his is now filled with thoughts of Paro and his unfulfilled love for her. Desperate to resolve the situation somehow, he runs to Paro who is now married and asks her to elope with him, but she refuses. Heartbroken, he seeks solace in alcohol and in the company of the courtesan Chandramukhi. Chandramukhi falls in love with Devdas, but even when he is with her he can only think of Paro.

It is now his destiny to hurtle on relentlessly on the path to self-destruction. Devdas痴 tortured life ends when, dying of a liver ailment brought on by alcoholism, he journeys to Paro痴 house to see her one last time. Arriving in the middle of the night, he dies unknown, untended, on her doorstep. Paro comes to know of his death only the following morning. Devdas has enthralled readers and filmgoing audiences alike for the better part of a century. This new translation brings the classic tale of star-crossed lovers alive for a new generation of readers.

� The classic novel brought to life in a new, lucid, extremely readable translation.

� Released to coincide with the superhit film directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

SREEJATA GUHA has an MA in Comparative Literature from State University of New York at Stony Brook. She has worked as a translator and editor with Stree publications and Seagull books in Kolkata, and now works with Jacaranda Press in Bangalore,. She has previously translated Picture Imperfect, a collection of Byomkesh Bakshi stories, and Taslima Nasrin's novel French Lover.