Shaf and the Remington

by Rana Bose

Shaf, a physics teacher and a philosopher, fought as a partisan in the Balkans during the Second World War. He has not been heard from for 40 years. How could such an ubiquitous and expansive person disappear? Did the murder of his mother and girlfriend by fascists during the War spark his sporadic displays of insanity? Rumours had him teaching in the United States and Europe during the Cold War. Ben, Shaf’s former student and now a lawyer in Zurich, finally meets up with Shaf in their hometown. The encounter does not turn out as expected. Peopling the story are four generations of a Balkan family. An 1890 Remington double-barrel shotgun appears and disappears throughout the story. Set in Sabzic, a fictitious town in an unnamed country in the Balkans, Shaf and the Remington chronicles the lives of a family, a people, a town, and a nation, from World War I to the end of the Cold War.

240 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2022

About the author

Rana Bose is a well-known playwright in Canada and has had ten of his plays published by Seagull, Prestige, and The Canadian Theatre Review. All of these plays have been performed in Canada, US, and India and perhaps elsewhere. He has been an engineer, mentor, consultant, performance poet, playwright, and resides in Montreal and sometimes in Kolkata. He is also one of the editors of the webzine Montreal Serai.