📑All That We Carry: Stories Across Place and Time | Short Stories of Exile, Survival & Identity in Modern India by Abhinav Kumar

BOOK DETAILS : 

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Srishti Publishers & Distributors
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ 9 February 2026
• Edition ‏ : ‎ First Edition
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 174 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9364116569
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9364116565

ABOUT THE AUTHOR : 

Abhinav Kumara is a corporate lawyer from New Delhi, India. I have been writing (and getting published) short fiction for 2 years. I regularly write short stories and the occasional poem - my work is not limited by any particular genre or interest - anything that catches my fancy or leaves any impact on my mind. My only hope is that my readers enjoy my stories as much as I enjoyed writing them!

BOOK REVIEW :

Some books entertain. Some books confront. And then there are books like All That We Carry, stories that quietly sit beside you and ask uncomfortable, necessary questions about who you are when the world is constantly watching, judging, and reshaping you.

This collection of thirteen short stories moves across cities, villages, memories, and moments of fracture; but at its core, it is about identity. About what we carry from the past. About what we are forced to carry by society. And about what we must eventually choose to lay down.

Abhinav Kumar writes about the human condition with remarkable restraint. There is no dramatic exaggeration here, only the piercing realism of everyday life. A woman navigating relentless gazes that slowly erode her autonomy. A former exile returning to the geography of her first love and first heartbreak. A young man running from a violent mob, caught between survival and dignity. These aren’t just plotlines; they are lived anxieties of modern India.

What makes this collection powerful is its emotional layering. The stories explore love, shame, anger, longing, fear, displacement, and resilience; not as grand declarations, but as quiet undercurrents shaping ordinary lives. The author understands that identity is not a static label; it is constantly negotiated through caste, gender, religion, class, migration, and memory.

Stylistically, Kumar’s prose is controlled and observant. He doesn’t instruct the reader what to feel, he allows silence, pauses, and subtext to do the work. That subtlety is where the book’s real strength lies. The stories don’t end with loud resolutions; they linger like unfinished conversations.

“All That We Carry” is not merely a collection of short fiction. It is a mirror to the silent negotiations we make every day, between freedom and fear, belonging and exile, dignity and survival. It reminds us that while we may leave places behind, we never truly leave behind the selves that were formed there.

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