Manto: Selected Short Stories

Unexpected discovery and a big surprise for me personally. It is hard to over-emphasize the importance of Manto's contribution to the sub-continental's narrative during India's partition. He holds his own place among greats such as Zola, Balzac and Chekhov.Being oblivious to Manto until now is embarrassing for me as an Indian (I feel downright stupid). It was not until I saw Nandita Das' movie earlier this month...Dec. 2018...that I decided to even look him up. But I am not alone. For some distorted reason, Indian (and British) education system left Manto out of our curricula, at least during my school and college years. Even in Pakistan, Manto's adoptive country, his recognition came more than a half century after his death. What a huge loss for the whole sub-continent.I would be remiss if I did not mention Aatish Taseer's contribution in this translation. He is clearly a student of Manto's art and stays faithful to the spirit of Manto's writing. How do I know? I don't. But even if part of the spirit is lost in translation, the book still ranks high among those of great masters.

I like the selection of the stories.....I felt that the translation is kinda literal..... But the author mentioned it in his introduction and explained why he chooses to use such a style.. but to get the true essence you probably have to read it in Urdu.This is definitely a great start to Manto's prose

A must if you want to read the great writers of India/Pakistan.

'Beautiful stories about Bombay during the division of India, terrible beauty in a word.

Every single one of these stories (the titles of which I'll list at the end) are pure magic. Regardless of whether or not I like an individual story (though I enjoyed almost all of them), they're all so brilliantly constructed.From the first sentence, the reader is immersed I to the world conjured up by the author, and that feeling stays with you until the last sentence, and beyond. Almost every story in this book is extremely enjoyable, definitely worth the time and money.Contents:Toba Tek SinghThe Dog of TithwalTen RupeesBlouseKhol DoKhaled MianMy Name is RadhaRam KhilavanLicenseThe Mice of Shah DaulahFor FreedomSmell

great

This book is a collection of total twelve short stories written by the renowned writer Saddat Hasan Manto, who strongly opposed the partition of India. He was a progressive writer of his generation who had to face extreme brutality due to his progressive ideological writings which lays great influence on the readers. This book has been translated by @aatishalitaseer to English with his fine use of language ..I saw the film Manto before I started reading this book, and the film included various events explained in this book..As I begun my reading, the story Toba Tek Singh, touched my soul with the linear concept of partition. Before reading this story, I had an extremely narrow conception about Indians and Pakistanis, after I read it, i was thrilled to know that partition was even conducted in mental asylums on the basis of their religion and country wise division.Then another story spoke about the rivalry between the men at borders for a dog and at the first few pages it was literally funny when Indians named it CHAPPAD JHUNJHUN and then suppressing names given by Indians Pakistan soldiers gave it a name SAPPAD SUNSUN and it was hilarious in the way it was written. But after a while, it was no more funny and resulting in sacrificing an innocent life of a dog, who was seen as a toy to them claiming to be their own property and them ordering the innocent dog that brave doesn't fear death, and on the other side the innocent dog had no idea of this brutality of humand minds, but had to loose it's life as a result of human egos and grievances.But the most beautiful story I read on this book is Ten rupees which depicts cruelty of society yet the innocence of a girl. It's a must read collection of short stories

Very good service

I had never heard of this writer before and was most impressed with his writing and themes. My pleasure may have been in finding such an "alien" atmosphere in his writing but pleasure there certainly was.