Selected Stories

‘Manto’s irony and humanity raise him on par with Gogol’ —Anita Desai in The Spectator

The most widely read and the most translated writer in Urdu, Saadat Hasan Manto (1912–55) is also the most controversial: he was tried for obscenity no less than six times, both before and after the departure of the British from India in 1947. Not always was he acquitted. In a writing career spanning over two decades, Manto, one of Urdu’s great stylists, produced a powerful and original body of work including short stories, a novel, radio plays, essays and film scripts.

This collection brings together some of Manto’s finest stories, ranging from his chilling recounting of the horrors of Partition to his portrayal of the underworld. Writing with great feeling and empathy about the fallen and the rejects of society, Manto the supreme humanist shows how the essential goodness of people does not die even in the face of unimaginable suffering. Powerful and deeply moving, these stories remain as relevant today as they were when they were first published more than half a century ago.

Khalid Hasan’s brilliant translation succeeds in capturing the intensity of Manto’s prose, the author’s sense of humour, no less than his razor-sharp vision.