Book Info
The characters of Nasreen Jahan’s stories are social misfits and discards, people who rarely attract attention because they are not charming or sophisticated, and people whose stories are rarely told. Thus an old man rises from his grave to hunt down his wife’s killer; a cripple, mocked by everyone, tries to prove his virility; a cattle thief finds himself in rivalry with vultures. Strongly feminist in her outlook, Nasreen Jahan can also empathize with men who suffer discrimination and oppression. In her stories, the real merges with the surreal, as she narrates the cruel ironies of life, its sorrows and paradoxes. Told in a variety of voices and modes, using symbol and metaphor, the stories reflect upon the enigma of the existential human condition, trapped within fragile mortal limits. In these strangely compelling stories, the writer does not offer solutions or preach morals. Nothing is taboo. Even holy cows are not spared. As each tale edges towards its climax you forget you are reading and will have that eerie feeling that it is all unfolding right before your eyes but you have no idea how it will end. This is a rare gift for yarn spinners.
Nasreen Jahan
Nasreen Jahan is a novelist, short story writer, playwright and literary editor of the fortnightly Anyadin. She started writing short stories in the early eighties. It was only in 1993, after five short story collections, that she published her first novel, Urukkoo. The novel, which won the Philips Literary Prize, portrays a woman struggling—and surviving—in a hostile and conservative world. Urukkoo was translated as The Woman Who Flew by Kaiser Haq and published by Penguin, India in 2012. In 2000, Nasreen Jahan received the prestigious Bangla Academy Award for her fiction. Among her other awards are the Alaol Literary Award in 1995 for children’s fiction. She is a prolific writer, with over fifty titles to her credit.
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