This image is the cover for the book Innocence

Innocence

I based my book Innocence on the Partition of India in 1947. Innocence follows Shukumar, the male protagonist. He grew up in a repressed society like India, in which open sexuality is taboo and kept hidden. However, in Western culture, it is accepted and embraced as a natural human characteristic. So, when he settled in Europe, coming into contact with open sexual expression had a dramatic impact. This gave the illusion of sexual freedom and gratification that led to social decadence and ‘Hell’. Shukumar plunges himself into the inferno to taste Hell and encounters death but survives. Kakoli-the female protagonist who was gang raped by the Moslem goondas during riots and dumped into a ditch escaped death. The author talks about the human animalistic passion for killing and thirst for blood that has stained the psyche of humanity.


Shukumar and Kakoli struggled to survive and beat all the odds stacked against them. They turned their misfortune into a powerful guiding spirit that created a new beginning filled with hope. This new beginning was filled with a belief that humanity can overcome all the tragedies and sufferings that came into their lives. Their story is a tale of innocence!

Shukdeb Sen

Partition of India by Britain and sectarian violence among Hindu-Moslem forced Shukdeb Sen to flee from his birth place Khulna, Bangladesh and settle in Calcutta, India. These tragic experiences made him a loner, and writing became a refuge and a safe world, where his creative mind could flourish. He published many poems in Bengali journals in Calcutta. He studied biological sciences at City College, Presidency College and Ballygunge Science College affiliated with Calcutta University. Then moved to the USA to study Plant Physiology and Cell Biology, and earned a master’s and a doctoral degree. During the last three decades, he has been teaching, mentoring and conducting research in academia, and published many scientific articles in Europe and the USA. Last five years, Shukdeb Sen devoted his time to his passion for creative writing and published three books: Black Education in White America (non-fiction), Flower Still Blooms (fiction, a collection of short stories), and If Life Was a Dream (Poetry). As of this writing, he has completed another short story collection titled America in the Year 2048 and Other Stories. Innocence is his debut novel.

Austin Macauley Publishers