In this collection of short stories, Avinuo Kire tells powerful tales of women
overcoming violence and repression. In The Power to Forgive, many of the stories
are told against the backdrop of the struggle for Nagaland's independence from
India. Yet it is the finely drawn portraits of ordinary people that resonate
most in this unusual collection.
Culled from folk and tribal traditions of Naga life, Kire's collection takes us
into a world where spirits converse with humans and where unsuspecting people
are drawn into forces greater than themselves. Among others, we find a man dying
quietly of cancer, a mother questioning her choice to give her a