Dashti Upanyas by Abul Bashar [Hardcover]

Despite gaining immediate recognition and popularity upon his emergence, Abul Bashar has steadily engaged in exploring new themes and inventing innovative language and forms. This entirely unique writer is simultaneously folkloric and supernatural; folkishly simple and sometimes intellectually sophisticated in urban contexts. His literary technique of revealing a life that seems familiar yet is deeply unfamiliar to the reader - extends beyond the reach of the educated urban middle class to the vast rural regions of India that are often ignored and neglected. He crafts the ultimate tales of these vast, forgotten people.

His world includes both the metropolis and the village; insects, birds, cows, fish, air, rivers, crops, fields, and grazing land - these are the realms he masters. He dedicates his books to rivers or to what is deeply ingrained in his heart. His distinctive feature is telling both the story above the earth and the story beneath it. Few storytellers are as skilled in ancient myths and folk tales as he is. In Bashar’s literature, a cow is both a goddess and an embodiment of Quranic verses. His active political experience as a farmer enriches his writing. His stories cultivate marginalized lives - where a cobbler and a Bengali writer become equals. Thus, the oppressed professor and the insignificant animal become one in his storytelling.

In his works, six Madans form the narrative of the tale of Madan's ashes. From a half-dreamlike history emerges the story of the impoverished Motta, a cart driver in Murshidabad, leading to the tale of a disillusioned courtesan's dream departure. Again, there is a love story revolving around a physical being, embodying a conflict between consciousness and unconsciousness - this contrast is unique. The politics of the past entrap a woman in a forbidden livelihood, and a story of life hunting is born in the womb of a rural girl.

Additionally, this collection includes novels focusing on psychological self-searching solitary love, dark comedy, the conflict between cosmetic surgery and consumerism, the duality between rape and gender transition, the blind tragedy of love’s thirst. There are also stories exploring the search for unity in Hindu-Muslim conflict. The collection includes Bhorer Proshuti, Saidar Bai, Shurer Sampan, Mayuri and Mayuri, Sporser Baire, Jal Mati Aguner Upakhyan, Bhetore Ashte Dao, Shesh Rupkotha, Pobitro Oshukh, and Norem Hrider Chihno - these ten novels are an embodiment of Abul Bashar’s unique observations of life.