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Winner 2022 Alcuin Award * 2023 Gerald Lampert Memorial Award Shortlist MONUMENT is a conversation with Mughal Empress Mumtaz Mahal, which moves her legacy beyond the Taj Mahal. MONUMENT upturns notions of love, monumentalisation, and empire by exploring buried facets of Mumtaz Mahal's story. The collection layers linear time and geographical space to chart the continuing presence of historical legacies. It considers what alternate futures could have been possible. Who are we when we continue to make the same mistakes? Beyond distance, time, and boundaries, what do we still carry? "A profound evocation of unbelonging." — Bhanu Kapil "Bandukwala is a lyric truth-teller." — Farzana Doctor "A sensitive, urgent, astonishing, masterful, and necessary debut." — Doyali Islam