Kahani: Short Stories by Pakistani Women

by Aamer Hussein (Editor), Azra Abbas, Altaf Fatima

Pakistan’s finest women writers – Jamila Hashmi, Mumtaz Shirin, and Fahmida Riaz, amongst others – introduce us to the compelling cadences of a rich literary culture. A naive peasant is left with a white man’s baby; a frustrated housewife slashes her husband’s silk pyjamas; a middle-class woman sees visions of salvation in the tricks of circus animals …

Equally at ease with polemic and lyricism, these writers mirror the events of their convoluted history – nationalism and independence, wars with India, the creation of Bangladesh, the ethnic conflicts in Karachi – in innovative and courageous forms. Influenced both by the Indian and Islamic traditions of their milieu and by the shocking impact of modernity, they are distinguished above all by their artistic integrity and intellectual honesty.

Aamer Hussein was born in Karachi and moved to London in 1970. As well as an author, Hussein is a well-known reviewer and literary critic, contributing to the Independent and the TLS, as well as to several Pakistani national newspapers. He holds visiting posts at the University of Southampton and the University of London. He was recently awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Literature.

Genres: Short Stories, Pakistan, Fiction, Anthologies, Asia

170 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2005

About the author

Aamer Hussein was born in Karachi in 1955 and moved to London in 1970 for further education after a year at boarding school in India. He has a degree in Urdu, Persian and South Asian studies from SOAS, and later studied French, philosophy and psychology. He began publishing fiction in the 1980s in journals and anthologies. His first collection of stories, Mirror to the Sun, appeared in 1993, to be followed by This Other Salt, Turquoise, Cactus Town, and Insomnia. He has also published a novella, Another Gulmohar Tree (2009) and a novel, The Cloud Messenger (2011). His stories have been translated into many languages, including Italian, Arabic and Japanese. In 2012, he contributed four original stories and a memoir in Urdu to the Karachi journal Dunyazad. Hussein, who is also an essayist and critic, is Professorial Writing Fellow in the Department of English and Humanities at the University of Southampton, and a Senior Fellow of the Institute of English Studies at London University.

Reviews

[R · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think a solid introduction to Pakistani literature is needed in order to fully understand the stories told in this books; not a bad book, but not all the stories were as good, and I think I had enjoyed reading this much more if I had an idea of what to expect from the book.

Nevertheless, I think it's a good read.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

With this short story collection, there are differences between me and the authors in terms of time, place, culture, language, and literary style, which in some cases meant I could see and understand the differences but in a few cases meant that I just had absolutely no clue what was going on in the story. These stories were written by Pakistani women and were translated from Urdu into English. After reading the whole book, I found a trend of dialogue that feels more flowery and opaque, as well as a certain vagueness about points of the story that the reader is just expected to understand, which I think combined to make me really confused in a few stories in which I honestly could not even tell you what the topic was or who was who or why a person was upset. I just don’t have the background to understand them properly.

Among the other stories though, I found it interesting that not a single one had a happy or satisfying ending. This may have to do with the turmoil surrounding Partition and that time period, or the general suffering of women, or cultural preference for the types of stories that are meaningful to explore in writing, but it was such a prevalent tone—any happiness was short lived, existence feels grinding and long and meaningless, and there are precious few happy relationships here. Unrelenting and hopeless misery is perhaps my least favorite style of short story, so even though there were a few quite interesting segments and I’m sure more depth than I could pick up on, I’m unlikely to read this collection again. Once was good.

[fatima. · Rating 3 out of 5]

i wish it was little longer

[Tania Hussain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keeping aside a few short stories which really just went over my head, this was a really nice compilation, of some very relevant stories.
South Asian stories + Women Writers = Happy Tania

[Karandeep · Rating 5 out of 5]

I relate to it and it's translated well so I'll rate it high. Plus it's a great effort by the translator to bring forth stories that are either obscure or forgotten or not in the main stream.
This book consists of multiple short stories, some are tragic while some are just complex to figure out. I had to google to understand why the story was left as is.
Anyways, I loved reading it and if you love literature from the Subcontinent then please pick it up.

[Anagha Uppal · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing style and tone take some getting used to, but this serves as a great introduction to Urdu literature. I need to get me some more of this!

"It takes some time, but you come to know that when you are saying all the right things for the wrong reasons, you are only playing to the gallery of your own doubts and misgivings."

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though this was a short collection, it felt like it dragged out. The stories blended together for me and I often found myself unsure if there was a common thread, or if I was just getting confused because many of the characters in each story were called by the same names (unfamiliar to me, but that's on me not the authors).

A quick and dirty intro to Urdu fiction which I think ultimately is too lyrical/poetic for me. I really enjoyed "The Godfather," but other than that, nothing really sticks out for me. I was bored more than anything, and was constantly tempted to skim.

***My intention for March was to only read books written by women. These stories are all by women, and given the title, I assumed they anthology was edited by a woman as well. I should have done better research, as Aamer Hussein is a man. However, I'm counting it, since he did not personally write any of the stories.

[Mokha · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's interesting to get into the minds of people from different lands, especially when those lands are frequently rather unfairly portrayed in the media. This is a rather good and varied array of stories written by the least heard from group in Pakistan - the ladies! It's a bit difficult to get a good "feel" for the stories, making them hard to "get into". I boil this down to translation issues, and so still highly recommend it!!

[Shilpi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only a few stories were good.

[Renita D'Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful and illuminating

[Sneha Khanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories - some amaze some average. Overall heartbreak at the struggle of women universally

[hawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

❤️🧡💛 an anthology of engagingly, sensitively, and beautifully written short stories. brilliant, delicate and deft in their complexity and layers.💛🧡❤️