Two Tales: Jamali Kamali and Zundelstate - by Karen Chase (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

These two stories explore love and beauty in the context of fear and threats. Jamali Kamali is a book-length poem about two men who lived in 16th century India. Little about them is known but they are buried together in a small tomb in Delhi. For hundreds of years, the story that these men were lovers has been passed down through the generations. Jamali Kamali is a fictional account of their love, longing, separation, and death. ZundelState, a novella in verse, takes place a thousand years in the future in a repressive land where history is banned, and dreaming has vanished. Joe, a lover of history, is rebellious and secretive. Marianna is a model worker for the State where she works in the HistoryShit Apparatchik Division. They fall in love against all odds. These two tales of outsiders, one from the distant past and the other from the far-off future, echo and reflect upon each other in surprising ways.

Review Quotes

A highly recommended read for those who savor poetic beauty, historical intrigue, and thought-provoking speculative fiction, Two Tales: Jamali Kamali and ZundelState is a literary gem that elegantly captures the infinite complexities of love and identity across time.

--The Reading Bud Book Blog

At the core of these stories is the endless possibility of love, language, and the power of the human heart. Karen Chase is a troubadour of wind, sound, space, time, memory, and desire.

--Matthew Lippman, author of We Are All Sleeping With Our Sneakers On

Both tales explore love not as mere romance, but as a radical force... The characters are outsiders, separated by centuries, yet linked by their yearning to carve out spaces of intimacy and meaning in hostile environments.

--Lavender Orchids Book Blog

Chase's message is clear and chilling: the fragility and preciousness of freedom, the finiteness of life, the importance of love and taking responsibility--a warning, especially in the ever-threatening times we are living in.

--The Berkshire Edge

Fact and fiction meet in Karen Chase's "Two Tales: Jamali Kamali and ZundelState," one a modern love story inspired by the past; the other a futuristic tale that yearns to understand our present.

--The Berkshire Eagle

Karen Chase finds the immutable human nature of her characters in these disparate worlds. And she has faith in their humanity, and that a good human story will always feel fresh and meaningful.

--Berkshire Jewish Voice

The two stories are riveting... They drive home how our beloved humanity rests not in our capacity to reason, but in our wild, imaginative spiritedness that lives in our dreams and loves. Should these fall away, we are finished.

--The Lakeville Journal

"Despite the fact that 'Jamali Kamali' was written several years ago, and 'ZundelState' completed recently, the author considers them to be of a piece. Her free-verse structure offers a cornucopia of love, longing, sexual passion, dreams, art, history and science." --Laurie Fendrich, The Lakeville Journal

"Fact and fiction meet in Karen Chase's Two Tales: Jamali Kamali and ZundelState, one a modern love story inspired by the past; the other a futuristic tale that yearns to understand our present." --Jennifer Huberdeau, The Berkshire Eagle

"Chase's message is clear and chilling: the fragility and preciousness of freedom, the finiteness of life, the importance of love and taking responsibility." --Marisa Labozzetta, The Berkshire Edge

"I enjoyed reading Jamali Kamali and ZundelState together, because while the former is set in an imagined 16th century India and the latter in a sci-fi landscape, Chase finds the immutable human nature of her characters in these disparate worlds." --Albert Stern, Jewish Berkshires

About the Author

Karen Chase is the author of four volumes of poetry, and four books of non-fiction. Her book of essays, History Is Embarrassing, came out in 2024. Chase and her husband, the painter Paul Graubard, live in the hills of Western Massachusetts.