The Tale of the Old Fisherman

A moving collection, a representative sample of diverse strands found in the Urdu short story, both from India and Pakistan, since partition. The twelve stories in this collection, each by a different hand, are the stuff of dreams, pain, longing, fear and hope. People from anywhere are here, but they speak and cry in Urdu, the language of India and Pakistan. Urdu has a rich literary tradition but in spite of its linguistic and thematic wealth, the Urdu short story remains largely unknown to an English-speaking audience. Few good translations are available for the enterprising and discerning reader.