The Death of Sheherzad - Paperback

by Intizar Hussain (Author)

'Intizar Husain's stories often tread that twilight zone between fable and parable. His narratives are spun on an oriental loom' - Keki N.

Daruwalla A man scours the town he left fifty years ago for some little evidence of past joys. Javed, who's returned to Lahore from East Pakistan, won't speak of what he witnessed 'there'.

An old woman boards a train full of dead ancestors in her dreams. A sage who cannot control his anger must seek out a butcher for redemption.

Mahaban, home of the monkeys once, is now a city full of human beings. Sheherzad, who once told Emperor Shaharyar a thousand-and-one stories, is now an old woman who has forgotten her yarns of fantasy.

The stories in The Death of Sheherzad ably represent Intizar Husain's oeuvre, defying narrative tradition and exploring the past, specifically Partition, as a means of unravelling the present. He imaginatively revisits a syncretic, tolerant pluralistic past to analyse why the tide turned so irreversibly.

Questioning everything - faith, violence, society - Husain probes the horrors of Partition in a manner as oblique as it is trenchant. Imbued with dark wit and literary brilliance, these stories at once shock, agitate and entertain.

Author Biography

Intizar Husain was born in the United Provinces, India, on 21 December 1925. He emigrated to Pakistan in 1947 and lives in Lahore. A chronicler of change, Husain has written five novels and published seven collections of short stories. Naya Ghar (The New House) paints a picture of Pakistan during the ten-year dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq. Agay Sumandar Hai (Beyond Lies the Sea) contrasts the spiralling urban violence of contemporary Karachi with a vision of the lost Islamic realm of al-Andalus in modern Spain, and will be published in English translation by HarperCollins in 2015. Basti, his 1979 novel, which traces the psychic history of Pakistan through the life of one man, Zakir, has just been republished as a New York Review of Books Classic. He was nominated for the Man Booker International Prize in 2013. Dr Rakhshanda Jalil is a writer, critic and literary historian. She has edited three collections of short stories: Urdu Stories (Srishti, 2002), a selection by Pakistani women writers called Neither Night Nor Day (HarperCollins, 2007) and New Urdu Writings: From India & Pakistan (Westland, 2013); a collection of essays on the little-known monuments of Delhi, called Invisible City (Niyogi, 2008, revised third edition 2011); two co-authored books, Partners in Freedom: Jamia Millia Islamia (Niyogi, 2006) and Journey to a Holy Land: A Pilgrim's Diary (OUP, 2009). She was co-editor of Third Frame, a journal devoted to literature, culture and society brought out by the Cambridge University Press. She has edited and introduced a volume of essays entitled Qurratulain Hyder and the River of Fire: The Meaning, Scope and Significance of her Legacy (Aakar, 2010; and Oxford University Press, Karachi, 2010). She has published eight works of translations: Premchand's short stories entitled The Temple and the Mosque (HarperCollins, 1992; revised and enlarged 2011); a collection of satirical writing in Hindi by Asghar Wajahat entitled Lies: Half Told (Srishti, 2002); 32 satirical cameos by Saadat Hasan Manto entitled Black Borders (Rupa & Co., 2003); Through the Closed Doorway, nazms by Urdu poet Shahryar (Rupa & Co. 2004); short stories by Intizar Husain entitled Circle and Other Stories (Rupa & Co. 2004; Sange-Meel, Lahore, 2012); a collection of Premchand's short stories for children called A Winter's Tale and Other Stories (Puffin, 2007); Naked Voices and other Stories, a collection of stories and sketches by Saadat Hasan Manto translated by her from Urdu (Roli, 2008); and Panchlight and Other Stories by Hindi writer Phanishwarnath Renu (Orient Blackswan, 2010). Her PhD thesis, 'Progressive Writers' Movement as Reflected in Urdu Literature', has been published by Oxford University Press as Liking Progress, Loving Change (2014). Another book, a biography of Urdu feminist writer Dr Rashid Jahan, has been published by Women Unlimited under the title A Rebel and her Cause (2014). With over fifteen books behind her and over fifty academic papers at seminars and conferences, at present she contributes regularly to national and international newspapers and magazines, writes book reviews, opinion pieces and travelogues, and appears on television to talk about culture, literature and society. She also contributes regularly to Himal (Kathmandu), The Herald (Karachi) and The Friday Times (Lahore), apart from The Hindu, Biblio, The Literary Review, etc., in India. Her debut collection of fiction, Release & Other Stories, was published by HarperCollins in 2011, and received critical acclaim. At present, she is engaged in a study of Indian secularism. She also runs an organization called Hindustani Awaaz, devoted to the popularization of Hindi-Urdu literature and culture, and blogs at www.hindustaniawaaz-rakhshanda.blogspot.com and another at IBN Live.