Showing all 4 results

  • BEFORE SHE SLEEPS

    In modern, beautiful Green City, the capital of South West Asia, gender selection, war, and disease have brought the ratio of men to women to alarmingly low levels. The government uses terror and technology to control its people, and women must take multiple husbands to have children as quickly as possible. Yet, some women resist, women who live in an underground collective and refuse to be part of the system. Secretly protected by the highest echelons of power, they emerge only at night, to provide to the rich and elite of Green City a type of commodity that nobody can buy: intimacy without sex.  As it turns out, not even the most influential men can shield them from discovery and the dangers of ruthless punishment.

    This dystopian novel from one of Pakistan’s most talented writers is a modern-day parable, The Handmaid’s Tale about women’s lives in repressive Muslim countries everywhere. It takes the patriarchal practices of female seclusion and veiling, gender selection, and control over women’s bodies, amplifies and distorts them in a truly terrifying way to imagine a world of post-religious authoritarianism.

     

     

    ISBN: 9789698729806
    Publisher: LIBERTY BOOKS
    Subtitle: A NOVEL
    Author: BINA SHAH

     1,195
  • THE BEGUM AND THE DASTAN

    Lined with grandeur, tragedy, and fantasy, Tarana Husain Khan’s odyssey maps the social, political, and religious contours of 1897 Sherpur with the fascinating and strong-willed Feroza Begum at the center of the storm.

    On an evening not too many evenings ago, the blue-eyed Feroza, flouting her family’s orders, attended Nawab Shams Ali Khan’s sawani celebrations at the Benazir Palace. Tragedy colored the night when she found herself kidnapped and withheld in Nawab’s harem – bustling, tantalizing, and rife with sinister power play. As tyranny and repression tightened their hold inside the royal walls, at the Bazaar Chowk, dastangoi Kallan Mirza enchanted his listeners with the legend of sorcerer Tareek Jaan and his chimeric city, the Tilism-e-Azam, where women were confined in underground basements.

    Misfortune and subjugation link eras when Ameera, Feroza’s great-granddaughter, is restricted to her house and finds solace in her Dadi’s retelling of Feroza’s tragedy. When Ameera’s circumstances begin mirroring the strife and indignities pervasive in 1897 Sherpur, she must reflect on how society has shifted enough for women and their choices.

    Written with careful flamboyance and striking evocativeness, The Begum and the Dastan is a world imbued with love, splendor, and heartbreak, only saved by the women who refuse to play by the rule book.


    ISBN: 9789698729622
    Publisher: LIBERTY BOOKS
    Subtitle:
    Author: TARANA HUSAIN KHAN

     1,195
  • THE ONE WHO DID NOT ASK

    A book titled, The One Who Did Not Ask is the English translation of Altaf Fatima’s Urdu novel Dastak Na Do by Rukhsana Ahmad. It was launched in a weekly session of Writers and Readers Cafe at the Arts Council on Thursday evening.

    Dr. Tanveer Anjum, who moderated the event, introduced the author and guest speakers to the audience.

    She said Ms. Ahmad was a novelist, short story writer and playwright. The first book that she read penned by her was The Hope Chest. And it was in 1993 that The One Who Did Not Ask was first published.

    Durdana Soomro was the first speaker at the launch who shed light on the quality of the translated work. She said it is a smoothly translated book, very easy to read. It’s been translated effortlessly. Contrary to what people think, an effortless translation requires more hard work. It’s a simple story that has a female protagonist named Gaiti. She is a rebel. In the simplicity of the story, there are a lot of themes, such as feminism and alienation. It focuses on family relationships with a large number of characters.

    The author of the book, Rukhsana Ahmad said one of the reasons for translating the novel was that she found its female protagonist, Gaiti, quite interesting. She is a lively character. Her mother is repressive and wants to control the girls [in the family]. The other aspect of Altaf Fatima’s work was its readability. I found it unputdownable. She tells the story so beautifully and goes with its pace. Then it’s written in a philosophical style. There’s a Chinese character in the story and the protagonist thinks about why two civilizations (China and the subcontinent) are different. This was also what I found intriguing. I didn’t know anything about Lao-Tzu. I have a friend who introduced me to a lot of this stuff. Altaf Fatima has thought deeply about all these things. Apart from that, there’s a contrast between the two sisters, one is compliant and the other is rebellious.

    Ms. Ahmad said a critic while praising her translation complained about the plethora of characters (relatives) in the novel. English novels are so much about the individual, unlike their Urdu counterparts, she argued.

    Dr. Omair Ahmed Khan said that Dastak Na Do was published in 1965. One of the important works of Altaf Fatima is the translation of Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. There are traces (aasaar) of that novel in Dastak Na Do. She carried the same melancholic tone when she wrote her book. The translation as a previous speaker said is effortless. Altaf Fatima’s theme is based on Lao-Tzu’s famous philosophy that you don’t have to knock on doors to ask for good things. While translating it, Ms Ahmad, rather than going for the literal meaning of the Urdu title, went for the philosophy.
    ISBN: ZO1111
    Publisher: LIGHTSTONE PUBLISHERS
    Subtitle: (DASTAK NAA DO)
    Author: ALTAF FATIMA

     2,450
  • PEARLS AND SHARDS

    “Iftikhar Malik’s Pearls and Shards seeks to redefine the genre by bringing together multiple campuses from various continents. Malik’s novel is not about financial constraints; he weaves together characters that belong to diverse backgrounds and are brought together by the campus which is as material as it is symbolic. Saleem Awan, the protagonist, moves around various campus worlds which are multicultural and multi-dimensional. He is a child of local and historical cultures, and his independent mind does not allow him to settle down in one place and [form a lasting] relationship because his universal personality would not afford him a single identity. After watching various actions on campuses across the continents, the reader realizes that there may not be a line of demarcation between the campus and the world ‘out there’. A relationship is perhaps the greatest asset one can possess, at the same time, it is a delicate balance that can come apart unless cherished and protected. Pearls and Shards is a unique work in its ambition and scope. It certainly has set new standards in the genre.” Abbas Zaidi, Sydney, Academic at the University of New South Wales; author of ‘The Infidels of Mecca’.
    “In Pearls and Shards, Iftikhar Malik, a distinguished academic, creates a rich, vivid tale that moves between the first and third-person narratives of a Pakistani scholar, Saleem, and his two American colleagues Natasha and Nadine. Spanning family relationships, personal friendships, and university life in Pakistan, Britain, America, and Japan, the novel makes an important comment on today’s universalism through personal encounters, the exchange of ideas, and the engagement with significant texts, alongside issues of identity and belonging.” Muneeza Shamsie, author of ‘Hybrid Tapestries’ and editor of ‘A Dragonfly in the Sun’.
    “An extraordinarily wide-ranging novel that takes us from Pakistan to Britain to the US to Japan. Pearls and Shards offer remarkable insight into lives that traverse cultures.” Gavin Cologne-Brookes, Lacock & Paris: Professor-Emeritus at Bath Spa University; author of `American Lonesome: The Work of Bruce Springsteen’.
    ISBN: 9789697162697
    Publisher: LIGHTSTONE PUBLISHERS
    Subtitle: A NOVEL
    Author: IFTIKHAR H. MALIK

     1,495