Though barely a hundred years old, the Urdu short story, or ‘afsana’, has established itself at the forefront of Urdu literature. Emerging as a discrete narrative genre with Munshi Premchand, it gained momentum with the progressive writers’ movement in the 1930s. The partition of the subcontinent in 1947 introduced new dynamics into the genre as writers grappled with emerging trends of modernism and symbolism as well as with a depleted readership in India and the challenge of establishing a new literary tradition commensurate with a new nationhood in Pakistan. The Penguin Book of Classic Urdu Stories brings together sixteen memorable tales that have influenced generations of readers. From Saadat Hasan Manto’s immortal partition narrative ‘Toba Tek Singh’ and the harrowing realism of Premchand’s ‘The Shroud’ to the whimsical strains of Qurratulain Hyder’s ‘Confessions of St. Flora of Georgia’ and the daring experimentation of Khalida Husain’s ‘Millipede’, this definitive collection represents the best of short fiction in Urdu. In the process, it provides a glimpse of the works of acclaimed masters on both sides of the border–Ismat Chughtai and Ashfaq Ahmad, Rajinder Singh Bedi and Intizar Husain, Krishan Chander and Hasan Manzar, Naiyer Masud and Ikramullah.
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