Aleph to publish THE DEMONESS: The Best Bangladeshi Stories, 1971-2021 Selected and Edited by Niaz Zaman

The twenty-seven stories in this book provide and extraordinary picture of Bangladesh and its people.

Picture Credit: Aleph
Picture Credit: Aleph

BOOK DESCRIPTION (INR 499, 176PP)
Published to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Bangladesh’s Independence, the twenty-seven stories in this collection feature the finest short fiction from the nation—since before it achieved independence in 1971 to the present day. Here, readers will find all the greats of Bangladeshi literature: in Kazi Nazrul Islam’s timeless masterpiece, ‘The Demoness’, a woman’s fury is unleashed when she learns that her husband is getting married again; ‘The Raincoat’ by Akhtaruzzaman Elias brings to life the traumatic effect of war on ordinary people; Shawkat Ali’s ‘The Final Resting Place’ is concerned with love, grief, and the human capacity for recovery; in Hasan Azizul Huq’s ‘Nameless and Casteless’, an unnamed protagonist accidentally witnesses the hidden horrors of war; and Anwara Syed Haq’s ‘Pagli’ is a sharp commentary on madness and trauma. Exceptional in subject, theme, and style, these and the other stories in The Demoness reveal an extraordinary picture of a land and its people.

ABOUT THE EDITOR 

NIAZ ZAMAN retired as Professor of English, University of Dhaka, and is, at present, Advisor, Department of English, Independent University, Bangladesh. Her published work includes the award-winning A Divided Legacy: The Partition in Selected Novels of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. She is also a creative writer and has published novels as well as short stories. She has edited several anthologies including Selected Short Stories from BangladeshThe Escape and Other Stories of 19471971 and After: Selected StoriesUnder the Krishnachura: Fifty Years of Bangladeshi WritingArshilat; and Contemporary Short Stories from Bangladesh. 

In 2016, she received the prestigious Bangla Academy Award for Translation. Her other awards include the Anannya Sahitya Puruskar (2013) and the Lekhika Sangha Award (2015).

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