The Mendonça Mystery and Other Stories

The book contains "seventeen magical, often poignant, often humorous stories" (from the Introduction) set in India, Michigan, and California.

The collection includes "family stories where the unlikely occurs ... finding-your-place-in-the-world stories ... tall tales ... and barely exaggerated tales filled with modern urban pathos ... sweet and poignant testaments to youthful fancies, embarrassments, and unexpected compassion ... and there is the sheer poetry of haikus in the context of atmospherically drawn moments." (The above excerpted quotation is from the Introduction by Naomi Rose).

Michael Chacko Daniels lives and writes in San Francisco. He grew up in Bombay, where he attended St. Michael’s High School, Wilson College, and University of Bombay’s Department of Economics. He has a Master’s from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism. His parents grew up in an ancient Syrian Christian community in the south Indian state of Kerala. In their middle years, in Bombay, they joined the local Baptist Church out of conviction. His adventures in the United States include five years as a Volunteer In Service To America (VISTA); four as editor/publisher of the New River Free Press of Grand Rapids, Michigan; four as assistant editor in San Francisco at The Asia Foundation; and sixteen at Berkeley’s Center for Independent Living. He helped start the Jobs for Homeless Consortium of Alameda County in 1988, and to run it through mid-2004. He is a naturalized citizen of the United States.