D-FW-based author Jenny Bhatt’s debut collection ‘Each of Us Killers’ reveals a world of humanity

Jenny Bhatt’s debut book is a revelation.

Each of Us Killers comprises 15 tales, ranging from a collection of a dozen microfiction peeks at harassment in the workplace to short stories of more conventional length.

But in every way, these narratives are very far from conventional. They are brilliant without showiness, heartbreaking without sentimentality and their insight into human nature is incisive, shrewd and compassionate.

Bhatt, who has lived all over the world but now resides in the Dallas suburb of Allen, brings a depth of wisdom and breadth of experience to her stories. Her protagonists — women and men of all ages, plus a couple of teenagers — may live in the American Midwest or in the United Kingdom, in Mumbai, Ahmedabad or rural Gujarat. Yet all of them are South Asians, yearning for something more in their lives: more success, more security, more respect, more freedom, more power, more love.

Traditional judgmentalism is hardest to escape in the homeland, but the striations of caste, complexion, money and religion paint faultlines of separation and otherness even in places that are supposed to be more liberated. In “Disappointment,” a woman who bumps into her former American lover in a Chicago airport remembers that he had valued her for her “exotic Indian princess” looks. “Sipping coffee from white china, I silently recall the way you would tease: ‘If you had my babies, they would be café au lait gorgeous,’” Bhatt writes. “It makes me shiver, this old sensation of being stripped of everything except what you desired.”

The power of memory plays a role in many of these stories. In “Mango Season,” a random encounter with a mango vendor acts as a Proust’s madeleine for Rafi, a working man in Mumbai. “And those two days suddenly came back to him…The images were like old, faded photographs where lines and colors had blurred into each other. He wondered, staring at the rows of mangoes before him now, about the exquisite hopes of youth and how, in time, life eats into them.”

Universal emotions, such as the push and pull of sexual desire, often war with resentment. In “Journey to a Stepwell,” an educated woman asks her more traditional mother: “Why must our entire lives depend on fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons?”

Though many of Bhatt’s stories portray difficult lives and the consequences of bad decisions, “Separation Notice” is a bright dash of flash-fiction humor. “Dear Lord Vishnu,” it begins in classic HR-speak, “This letter is to inform you that your employment has been terminated, effective immediately. … If you have questions about your compensation, benefits, or returning company property, please refer to the policy documents you received and signed at the beginning of time.”

Two of the stories in this book — “Neeru’s New World” and “Each of Us Killers” — earned Pushcart Prize nominations, “The Waiting” was a finalist in 2017′s Best of the Net anthology and the title story also was nominated for the Best American Short Stories 2017 collection. With this powerful, complex work, Bhatt should be launched into a wider readership that is fully deserved, and the literary world should rejoice in discovering a bright new star.

Each of Us Killers

By Jenny Bhatt

(7.13 Books, 178 pages, $18.99)