WHEN writer Raja Prasad visits Goa for peace and quiet to write his second novel, he encounters Maria, the young girl who died over two decades ago, pining for a foreigner painter. Staying in her room in the guest house he feels her presence and ‘sees’ her. Raja had undergone trauma years ago, when his wife died a few days after marriage in a bike accident, which confined him to bed for months. This trip to Goa itself was part of the ‘cure’ engineered by his father. Raja meets the bubbly Lorna there. He stumbles upon the secrets behind Maria’s death. His dead wife, Ruma, Maria and Lorna – all these women play mind games with him till he struggles with himself and makes sense and peace with the present, the world he lives in. Shreekumar Varma’s novel Maria’s room is a psychic novel, with overflowing romance and emotions. The author is a Chennai-based poet, playwright, novelist and journalist. -VN
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