The Season of Love, Bitter Almonds and Delayed Rains, Mazhar ul Islam's first book to be published in English is a heartfelt, poetic critique of Pakistani society. In an era when the Indian English-Language nove predominates in the West, it is an important addition to the corpus of south Asian literature available in English.
Mazhar ul Islam, a writer and folklorist, is one of the most original literary voices to emerge in contemporary Pakistan. His short stories mark the beginning of a new tradition in the Urdu prose of the subcontinent. Combining the skills of an alchemist with the brush strokes of a painter and the composition of a musician, Mazhar ul Islam's unique stories weave together themes of love, pain, ecstasy, separation and death. His technique transforms the reader's world in magical, moving ways and is imbued with a deep compassion for its characters who are searching for pure love.
His works have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, German, English, and several South Asian languages. Mazhar ul Islam has also served as Director General of the Pakistan Academy of Letters, as Executive Director of Lok Virsa and presently he is serving as the Managing Director of the National Book Foundation. He has been awarded the President's Pride of Performance for Literatureand Revival of Folk Studies. He lives in Islamabad. Pakistan
As Mazhar ul Islam's stories are written in Urdu, a rich language but with a relatively limited international readership, his spellbinding fiction has not received the acclaim On the world literary scene as it has in his own country. This first comprehensive Italian translation of many of his most powerful writings, invites a wider international audience to share his distinct world.
Mazhar ul Islam has published four Collections of short stories: Charon ke shahrmein ukela admi (The Man Alone in the City of Horses); Baton ki barish mein bheegti larki (The Girl Drenched in a Deluge of Words); Guriya kiaankh se shahrko dekho (Look a t the City through the Doll's Eye); Khat mein post ki hui dopaher (The Afternoon Posted in a Letter). He has also Published Mein, aap aur tooh (Me, You and Him) a collection of essays, Lok Punjab (Folk Punjab: A Folklorist Diary), Folklor ki pahli kitab (First Book of Folklore) a research manual, and Ay Khuda (0 God) a collection of prose poems.
About the Translator
A long-time personal friend of Mazhar ul Islam, Christopher Shackle (b. 1942) has been Professor of Modern Languages of SouthAsia at SOAS, University of London, since 1985.He is a specialist in Urdu and Punjabi. In 2005 he was awarded the Sitara-i- Imtiaz for his work on Pakistani languages and literatures.He has been published widely in the fields of South Asian and Islamic studies.
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