Ships That Pass tells the story of Tara and Shaan, near strangers to each other after fourteen years of being married, and Tara s sister, Radhika, recently engaged, almost on a whim, to someone she barely knows. Even as Radhika tries to understand how a once ideal marriage has come undone, and struggles with her own feelings for an older man, tragedy strikes: Tara dies in mysterious circumstances and Shaan is arrested for murder. In the aftermath, Radhika realizes that while life may seldom turn out as expected, the only hope lies in finding the courage to take one s chances. A meditation on the nature of love and marriage, this subtle novella is vintage Shashi Deshpande. [A] mesmerizing writer. . .you can never walk away from her stories