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| Author(s) | |
|---|---|
| Translator(s) | |
| Language | English |
| Format | Paperback |
| Pages | 55 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-81-981886-1-8 |
Six Stories
by Nasreen Jahan | Translated from the Bengali by Bishnupriya Chowdhuri
In this searing collection, one of Bangladesh’s most acclaimed literary voices turns her gaze toward the landscapes we rarely speak of aloud — fear, longing, disfigurement, and the quiet violence of ordinary lives. Six Stories moves between the mythic and the domestic, the surreal and the painfully real, each story cutting closer to the bone than the last.
A girl’s coming-of-age collides with betrayal and brutality beneath a mahua tree. A desperate man wages war against vultures for the price of a cowhide. A woman navigates the quiet menace of a stranger on a bus, only to discover the world’s cruelty runs deeper than she feared. A wife lies awake night after night, unable to name the ache eating away at her marriage. A mother with a lifelong physical difference watches her daughter step into a freedom she was never allowed. And in the collection’s final story, a woman confronts her own reckless hunger for a life unbound by rules — even the ones that keep her alive.
Rendered into English with rare sensitivity by translator Bishnupriya Chowdhuri, these six stories carry the lyrical density of poetry and the unflinching gaze of the finest short fiction. Nasreen Jahan — recipient of the Bangla Academy Puraskar, the Philips Literary Award, and the Alaol Sahitya Puraskar, among other honors — writes with a boldness that refuses easy comfort, choosing instead to sit with what is unsaid, uncomfortable, and unforgettable.
A slim volume with an outsized impact, Six Stories is a masterclass in restraint and intensity — the kind of book that lingers long after the final page.
Born in the late sixties, Nasreen Jahan is an acclaimed writer and literary editor from Bangladesh. Her literary career spans over three decades and encompasses a prolific body of work, including prose, poetry, and non-fiction. She first gained recognition with the publication of her novel Urukku in 1993. In 1974, she joined Chander Hat, a national children’s organisation, and began writing rhymes and short stories for the children’s page of the daily newspaper Dainik Bangla. It was only in the 1980s that she concentrated on writing short stories, which have since garnered robust admiration from critics and readers across the Bengali readership. She has five collections of stories and several novels to her name. She received the Bangla Academy Puraskar for her contribution to literature and won the Philips Literary Award, Alaol Sahitya Puraskar, and Khulna Writers’ Club Puraskar, among other honours and accolades.
A bilingual writer and translator, Bishnupriya Chowdhuri leads the editorial team at The Antonym Collections publishing. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Central Florida and an MA in Comparative Literature from Jadavpur University. She translates short fiction, creative non-fiction, memoirs, and experimental lyrical prose from Bengali to English. Her first translated novel, No One As Rano Biswas by Alokparna, was published in 2023. Her other works include Nandalal: The Boy with the Magic of Lines and Library of Lost Birds: A Memoir. She has edited Flaming Flowers: Women Writers from Bengal, Bangladesh, and Beyond Vol 1; and Year’s Best: Best Bengali Short Stories in Translation: 2022. Other than writing, she keeps close, her daughter’s hands, afternoon breezes, and the jade plants that seem to know everything.
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