| Author: | Musharraf Ali Farooqi | ISBN: | 9780989983204 |
| Publisher: | Restless Books | Publication: | October 17, 2013 |
| Imprint: | Language: | English |
| Author: | Musharraf Ali Farooqi |
| ISBN: | 9780989983204 |
| Publisher: | Restless Books |
| Publication: | October 17, 2013 |
| Imprint: | |
| Language: | English |
Description
After the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan in 1947, Ustad Ramzi is still famed as a wrestler of unparalleled strength and technique. But now Ramzi’s power—if not his indomitable will—is on the wane, while his reckless brother Tamami is hungry for fame and glory.
The courtesan Gohar Jan was celebrated throughout the country for her beauty and the seductive power of her singing, her kotha was thronged by nobles, rich men, and infatuated admirers. But Gohar Jan’s world is changing, too. As the society they've known crumbles around them, Ustad Ramzi and Gohar Jan stand resolute against the catastrophe of history.
Shortlisted for The Man Asian Literary Prize, Between Clay and Dust is an arresting account of love, honor, betrayal, and the ways in which we wrestle with history.
Reviews
"A crisp and elegiac novel….Farooqi’s atmospheric prose is spare and lucid."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Between Clay and Dust glides on understated, soulful prose, an English that feels almost like Urdu in its sensibility, for it captures the cadence of a culture in decline in post-Partition India and Pakistan[...]: a shared, plural composite culture and the refinement of pleasure and the arts, of which courtesans and wrestlers are perhaps its most enduring, romantic and graceful ciphers. Farooqi’s restrained prose that creates a certain lushness and heightened mood, is surely drawn from the eclipsed traditions of the kotha and akhara that it distills so wonderfully and with such dignity[.]”
—Asian Review of Books
"This is the most poignant, the most subtle, the most moving novel I have read in the past few years from this, or any, region. A natural storyteller, Farooqi imagines a world we thought we were familiar with and then pulls the rug out from under our feet."
—Caravan Magazine
"[Farooqi] is entirely successful in showing us that we still retain the power, if not to shape our destinies, to at least react to our waning fortunes with a contradictory brew of emotions that range from despair to forbearance."
—Newsline Magazine
"This is a quietly affecting book, with a profound understanding of tragedy: that what happens to us is as much a function of how we respond to events as the events themselves."
—The Sunday Guardian
About the Author
Musharraf Ali Farooqi is an author, novelist, and translator. He was born in 1968 in Hyderabad, Pakistan, and now divides his time between Toronto and Karachi. His acclaimed new novel, Between Clay and Dust, was shortlisted for The Man Asian Literary Prize 2012 and longlisted for the 2013 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. In 2015, Restless Books will publish Farooqi's second novel, The Story of a Widow, which was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2011 and longlisted for the 2010 IMPAC-Dublin Literary Award. His most recent children's fiction is the novel Tik-Tik, The Master of Time, Pakistan's first English language novel for children. His other children's fiction includes the picture book The Cobbler's Holiday Or Why Ants Don't Wear Shoes and the collection The Amazing Moustaches of Mocchhander the Iron Man and Other Stories, shortlisted for the India ComicCon award in the Best Publication for Children category. He is the author of the critically acclaimed translations of Urdu classics, The Adventures of Amir Hamza, and the first book of a projected 24-volume magical fantasy epic, Hoshruba. Find out more at his website.
Description
After the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan in 1947, Ustad Ramzi is still famed as a wrestler of unparalleled strength and technique. But now Ramzi’s power—if not his indomitable will—is on the wane, while his reckless brother Tamami is hungry for fame and glory.
The courtesan Gohar Jan was celebrated throughout the country for her beauty and the seductive power of her singing, her kotha was thronged by nobles, rich men, and infatuated admirers. But Gohar Jan’s world is changing, too. As the society they've known crumbles around them, Ustad Ramzi and Gohar Jan stand resolute against the catastrophe of history.
Shortlisted for The Man Asian Literary Prize, Between Clay and Dust is an arresting account of love, honor, betrayal, and the ways in which we wrestle with history.
Reviews
"A crisp and elegiac novel….Farooqi’s atmospheric prose is spare and lucid."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Between Clay and Dust glides on understated, soulful prose, an English that feels almost like Urdu in its sensibility, for it captures the cadence of a culture in decline in post-Partition India and Pakistan[...]: a shared, plural composite culture and the refinement of pleasure and the arts, of which courtesans and wrestlers are perhaps its most enduring, romantic and graceful ciphers. Farooqi’s restrained prose that creates a certain lushness and heightened mood, is surely drawn from the eclipsed traditions of the kotha and akhara that it distills so wonderfully and with such dignity[.]”
—Asian Review of Books
"This is the most poignant, the most subtle, the most moving novel I have read in the past few years from this, or any, region. A natural storyteller, Farooqi imagines a world we thought we were familiar with and then pulls the rug out from under our feet."
—Caravan Magazine
"[Farooqi] is entirely successful in showing us that we still retain the power, if not to shape our destinies, to at least react to our waning fortunes with a contradictory brew of emotions that range from despair to forbearance."
—Newsline Magazine
"This is a quietly affecting book, with a profound understanding of tragedy: that what happens to us is as much a function of how we respond to events as the events themselves."
—The Sunday Guardian
About the Author
Musharraf Ali Farooqi is an author, novelist, and translator. He was born in 1968 in Hyderabad, Pakistan, and now divides his time between Toronto and Karachi. His acclaimed new novel, Between Clay and Dust, was shortlisted for The Man Asian Literary Prize 2012 and longlisted for the 2013 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. In 2015, Restless Books will publish Farooqi's second novel, The Story of a Widow, which was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2011 and longlisted for the 2010 IMPAC-Dublin Literary Award. His most recent children's fiction is the novel Tik-Tik, The Master of Time, Pakistan's first English language novel for children. His other children's fiction includes the picture book The Cobbler's Holiday Or Why Ants Don't Wear Shoes and the collection The Amazing Moustaches of Mocchhander the Iron Man and Other Stories, shortlisted for the India ComicCon award in the Best Publication for Children category. He is the author of the critically acclaimed translations of Urdu classics, The Adventures of Amir Hamza, and the first book of a projected 24-volume magical fantasy epic, Hoshruba. Find out more at his website.
