A searing portrayal of a society bereft of moral and spiritual anchors, Manjula Padmanabhan’s fifth play, Harvest, won the Onassis Award for Original Theatrical Drama in 1997, the first year in which the prize was awarded. Following its international premiere in Greece in 1999, the play has been performed over the years by theatre groups, both amateur and professional, around the world.

A dark satire, Harvest tells the story of an impoverished family and the Faustian contract they enter into with a shadowy international corporation: fabulous wealth in exchange for the organs of one of its members. As Ginni, the glamorous American woman who hopes to receive the organs, invades their one-room home via an interactive video device the play lays bare the transactional nature of human relationships – even the most intimate ones.

This edition includes, for the first time, a gender-reversed version of the play – an experiment by the author that provides startling insight into the stereotypes and societal constructs ingrained deep in the human psyche and, indeed, into how we perceive gender.

Without much ado she speeds off on a Westward-bound spiritual quest, which involves cheating on her boyfriend, lying to everyone she loves and cutting off all ties with her safe, respectable, bourgeois Indian upbringing.

In this picaresque travel memoir, novelist, cartoonist and award-winning playwright Manjula Padmanabhan looks back on her youthful misadventures in Europe. By turns funny and fierce, Getting There will touch anyone who has ever wanted to strip off their skin to waltz, however briefly, on the wild side.

Collected Plays brings together, in a much-anticipated series, the dramatic works of Onassis Prize-winning playwright and author Manjula Padmanabhan.

Blood and Laughter, the first volume, presents within its covers Padmanabhan’s full-length plays – including the three-times cinematized Lights Out, the previously unpublished Mating Game Show and Artist’s Model, and the award-winning Harvest – all known for their masterful portrayal of the dilemmas of morality, relationships and the idea of justice. Horror, anticipation and chilling realism mark each of these works, drawing readers and audiences alike to the edge of their seats.

With new introductions to the works that affirm the relevance of the themes of the plays, this collection showcases the playwright’s mastery of her art and reconfirms her standing among the leading dramatists of our time.

An adventure story like no other, a tale of love and self-discovery in several unexpected layers, Escape is a novel that is as unsettling as it is unputdownable. In its captivating portrayal of tender relationships blooming and thriving in a vicious, forbidding landscape, it bears out Manjula Padmanabhan’s genius as a creator of compelling alternative worlds.

Collected Plays brings together, in a much-anticipated series, the dramatic works of Onassis prize-winning playwright and author Manjula Padmanabhan.

Laughter and Blood, the second volume, presents within its covers Padmanabhan’s short performance pieces. From The Sextet and Ladies’ Night to Hidden Fires and Blind Date, these wildly inventive, subversive and often chilling plays introduce readers to the intrigues of inverted power structures, tantalizingly suggestive interactions and powerful voices from the fringe.

With new introductions to the works that affirm the relevance of the themes of the plays, this collection showcases the playwright’s mastery of her art and reconfirms her standing among the leading dramatists of our time.

But the Island itself is a menacing place, and Meiji may be in more danger than ever before. To see what has become of his beloved girl, Youngest must find a way to infiltrate its odd environs while keeping the constantly assaulting voice in his head at bay. His struggles against the surreal inhabitants of a world gone wrong and with his own transformed identity only serve to steel his efforts to find the girl, and escape once more...

The Island of Lost Girls showcases, yet again, Manjula Padmanabhan’s genius at creating searing landscapes and alternate, sometimes brutal, worlds while reaffirming the beauty and the ugliness, the cruelty and the tremendous compassion that essentially make us human.