Synopses & Reviews
A collection of classic, yet shockingly contemporary, short stories set in the vibrant world of mid-century Bombay, from one of India’s greatest writers.
Arriving in 1930s Bombay, Saadat Hasan Manto discovered a city like no other. A metropolis for all, and an exhilarating hub of license and liberty, bursting with both creative energy and helpless despondency. A journalist, screenwriter, and editor, Manto is best known as a master of the short story, and Bombay was his lifelong muse. Vividly bringing to life the city’s seedy underbelly—the prostitutes, pimps, and gangsters that filled its streets—as well as the aspiring writers and actors who arrived looking for fame, here are all of Manto’s Bombay-based stories, together in English for the very first time. By turns humorous and fantastical, Manto’s tales are the provocative and unflinching lives of those forgotten by humanity.
Synopsis
Saadat Hasan Manto was born in what is now Punjab in 1912. An acclaimed Urdu-language short story writer, he also worked as a journalist and wrote extensively for film and radio throughout Indian and Pakistan. He died in 1955.
Table of Contents
Khushiya
Ten Rupees
Barren
The Insult
Smell
Babu Gopi Nath
Janaki
Peerun
Rude
Hamid’s Baby
Mummy
Siraj
Mozelle
Mammad Bhai
Translator’s Note
Glossary
Bibliography
Acknowledgements