Book Review: The Greatest Urdu Stories Ever Told

Title: The Greatest Urdu Stories Ever Told
Editor: Muhammad Umar Memon
Publisher: Aleph Book Company
Pages: 372
ISBN:978-9383064076
Source: Publisher

Short stories are my all time favourite. The obvious reason being their short length and their power to captivate the reader so quickly. While it usually takes us 10-15 pages to get into a novel, the short story often miraculously leaves us mesmerized within that span of pages. I got this book about 4-5 months ago and I had been making my way through the anthology slowly and slowly, enjoying one story at a time.

The anthology has 25 stories in all. And each of the 25 stories in this anthology is a gem. The book opens with an introduction by the editor where he acquaints the reader with the history of Urdu fiction- short stories, to be specific. The Urdu fiction belongs to a realm that has hitherto remained in darkness for most of the English readers, unless someone already has an interest in it.

This anthology throws light on this world of Urdu fiction which has numberless pieces of writing to boast of. These translations, although very smooth, can only give us an estimate of the real beauty of Urdu prose. I enjoyed each and every story in the collection. Each story was like a unique experience to me.

The stories in the collection come from all the spheres of life. There’s a sense of longing in most of the stories. While reading some stories, I found my self to be mourning the loss of a harmonious and loving world that went missing during the partition and was never found- perhaps no one made an attempt to find it.
Having a partition story of my own family to think of and living in Punjab (which is where most the stories are set in), I could connect much more deeply with these stories and their characters. Although stories about riots appear to be dominating the collection, there are several other stories that come from different areas.

The stories in the collection are of varied length, ranging from 4 to 40 pages long. Most of the stories of the first half are longer and set in Punjab. While the stories from the second half are shorter and take us to different locations, from Mussourie through Calcutta to Australia and England. The characters that appear in these stories are very much like the people around us.

My favourite short stories from the collection are The Shroud, Toba Tek Singh, Laajwanti, Aanandi, Banished, Beyond the Fog, Fable of a Severed Head and The Vultures of the Parsi Cemetery. There are many more that I want to mention here but these stand our from the whole collection.

I would again like to say that this anthology provides a unique inexplicable experience- an experience like the gush of hot wind that hits your face when you open your window in the month of June, an experience as pleasant the smell of first few drops of the long awaited rain, an experience that leaves one speechless. It is a highly recommended book.

My Rating: ***** (5/5)

What are your thoughts about this book? Have you read anything from Urdu literature? Do share your thoughts. Thanks.

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*I was kindly sent a copy by the Publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Views expressed are entirely personal & unbiased.*