Sa’adat Hasan Manto, arguably the most prolific Urdu short story writer of the modern period, is best known in South Asia and Pakistan for his incisive, [.]
May, 2021. In about 10 days it will be 51 years since I came, at the age of 15, to study in this city, London. But it’s a very different place we live in now. After weeks of meeting outdoors in parks and private gardens, or sipping coffee in open air cafes, we are allowed, from today, to dine in restaurants and socialise in each other’s homes. Yet, the solitary habits we formed during our 13 months of almost constant lockdown are here to stay people rush home at a given hour to ‘attend’ Zoom events or simply to watch television.
Last weekend’s television highlight was the new adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s once very popular comic novel, The Pursuit of Love, which I read in my early 20s like a minor rite of passage. When I watched it on a dreary Sunday night, the silly antics of silly aristocrats in the years between the two world wars worked better than any pill to put me to sleep.
Himal Southasian
12 noteworthy books on Southasia reviewed by our contributors this year.
As the year ends with a flood of the inevitable, and somewhat oddly titled, ‘best books of the year’ lists, we have instead compiled our own recommendations which we hope will serve as a starting point for richer conversations on Southasia. These books raise questions that deserve wider debate and deeper reflection. Here are 12 noteworthy books reviewed by
Himal Southasian in 2020.
Vanni: A Family’s Struggle Through The Sri Lankan Conflict by Benjamin Dix and Lindsay Pollock
‘Vanni: A Family’s Struggle Through The Sri Lankan Conflict’ by Benjamin Dix and Lindsay Pollock. Penguin Books, October 2019.
At
The Rumpus, in keeping with yearly tradition, Barbara Berman has reviewed four new collections of poetry and books on poetics that would be perfect for any reader on your holiday shopping list. This review will be her final one for the site, as she writes in a closing author s note. It s a good last hurrah: Berman has picked
Little Black Train by Jordan Smith,
The Voice of Sheila Chandra by Kazim Ali,
Natch by Sophia Dahlin, and the poetic essay,
Poetry has many siblings, and as Claudia Rankine and others have shown so eloquently, photography is one of them. Translated by Matt Reeck,