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THE CROOKED LINE: A NOVEL Ismat Chughtai Translated from the original Urdu by Tahira Naqvi Rs 350 Pb 2003 81-85107-55-6 (US rights sold. All others available.)
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This magnum opus is one of the most important novels of the subcontinent. The narrative draws heavily on the author’s own experiences and revolves around the life of Shaman, born as the tenth and youngest child in a middle-class Muslim family where traditional mores and cultural constraints maintain an oppressive hold on the lives and behaviour of all its members. The Novel exposes the social cultural conflicts and the psychosexual determinants that govern the development of female consciousness. …with the aplomb of a great cook, Ismat Chughtai seizes fistfuls of story, people, plot, fantasy, prophecy, and pattern of rhythm and tosses them into a bubbling cauldron.
—Indian Review of Books
What makes Chughtai special is that nowhere does her art seem to have a palpable design on us. She is a feminist, an iconoclast, an atheist yet how perfectly she knows not to offend.
—Outlook |
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ISMAT CHUGHTAI is the author of several collections of short stories, three novellas, a collection of reminiscences and essays, My Friend, My Enemy, and a memoir, Kaghazi Hai Perahan (The Paper-thin Garment). She co-produced and co-directed six films, and produced a further six independently. |
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TAHIRA NAQVI is a translator, writer and Urdu language lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University. She has translated the works of Sa'dat Hasan Manto, Munshi Premchand, Khadija Mastoor and Ismat Chughtai into English. |
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