Kahani: Short Stories by Pakistani Women

Pakistan’s finest women writers – Jamila Hashmi, Mumtaz Shirin, and Fahmida Riaz, amongst others – introduce us to the compelling cadences of a rich literary culture. A naive peasant is left with a white man’s baby; a frustrated housewife slashes her husband’s silk pyjamas; a middle-class woman sees visions of salvation in the tricks of circus animals …Equally at ease with polemic and lyricism, these writers mirror the events of their convoluted history – nationalism and independence, wars with India, the creation of Bangladesh, the ethnic conflicts in Karachi – in innovative and courageous forms. Influenced both by the Indian and Islamic traditions of their milieu and by the shocking impact of modernity, they are distinguished above all by their artistic integrity and intellectual honesty.Aamer Hussein was born in Karachi and moved to London in 1970. As well as an author, Hussein is a well-known reviewer and literary critic, contributing to the Independent and the TLS, as well as to several Pakistani national newspapers. He holds visiting posts at the University of Southampton and the University of London. He was recently awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Literature.