37 Bridges and Other Stories

By Aamer Hussein

A masterful new collection from a leading exponent of the short story.
A poem sparks off an epistolary exploration of romance, a television series consumes a writer's curiosity, a princess sets out in search of her husband, a young boy learns of love and loss at boarding school - Aamer Hussein infuses these stories with his musical, poetic sensibility. From the experimental 'The Tree at the Limit' to the mellow, almost mythical 'The Swan's Wife', and to the rambling conversations of two Karachi veterans lunching by the sea while their city rains down on them in 'Two Old Friends', these tales examine belonging and displacement, homes and would-be homes. Five stories, including the diptych 'Knotted Tongue', originally written in Urdu by the author, were translated into English to explore new voices and visions.Blending modern art with soap opera, traditional tales with contemporary realities, humour with wisdom, this is a masterful new collection from a leading exponent of the short story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Apr 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9789351770350

Aamer Hussein

Aamer Hussein was born in Karachi in 1955 and moved to London in his teens. He reviews regularly for the Independent, lectures at the University of Southampton and the Institute of English Studies, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His novella Another Gulmohar Tree was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Europe and South Asia 2010.

Book preview

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