Chaar Deewari / چار دیواری

by Shaukat Siddiqui

768 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Shaukat Siddiqui was a Pakistani writer of fiction who wrote in Urdu. He is best known for his novels Khuda Ki Basti (خدا کی بستی) (translated as:God's Own Land) and Jangloos.

Siddiqui was born on 20 March 1923 in a literary family of Lucknow, India. He gained his early education in his home town and earned a B.A. in 1944 and a M.A. (Political Science) in 1944. After the partition of India, he migrated to Pakistan in 1950 and stayed in Lahore but soon permanently settled in Karachi.
He was an active member of Pakistan Writers' Guild and a partisan of progressive writers association. He worked at the news-desks of the Times of Karachi, Pakistan Standard and the Morning News. He finally rose to be the editor of the Daily Anajam, the Weekly Al-Fatah and the Daily Musawat Karachi, before bidding goodbye to journalism in 1984.

Shaukat Siddiqui’s first collection of short stories was `Teesra Admi’ (1952). The collection earned him fame across the Sub-continent and placed him in the ranks of literary giants like Quratul Ain Haider and Joginder Paul. Subsequently, other collections of short stories, `Andhere Dur Andhere’, (1955), `Raton Ka Shahar’ (1956) and `Keemyagar’ (1984), followed.

His magnum opus is `Khuda Ki Basti’ which went through 50 editions; has been dramatised time and again and translated into 26 languages. Other novels of Shaukat Siddiqui are `Kamingah’ (1956), `Jangloos’ (1988) and `Char Deewari’ (1990)

Reviews

[Asif Wali · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fasinating look into a dying culture.

[Nasreen Ghori · Rating 1 out of 5]

Crappp ..!