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‘Magnificent . . . Ashk writes with a clear hand and is served well by Daisy Rockwell as she recreates a compelling narrative’-Dawn
Unfolding over the course of a single day, Ashk’s sweeping sequel to Falling Walls explores the inner struggles of Chetan, an aspiring young writer, as he roams the labyrinthine streets of 1930s’ Jalandhar, haunted by his thwarted ambitions but intent on fulfilling his dreams.
Married to a woman he does not love while pining for another man’s wife, Chetan must also face the prospect of taking up a dead-end job in the wake of his recent failures in Lahore and Shimla. And as he trudges around Jalandhar, constantly running into people he’d rather avoid, he finds himself confronting the tangled memories, frailties and fears that assail him.
Intensely poignant and vividly evocative, In the City a Mirror Wandering is an exploration of not only a dynamic, bustling city but also the rich tapestry of human emotion that consumes us all.
Imprint: India Penguin Modern Classics
Published: Jan/2019
ISBN: 9780143425991
Length : 512 Pages
MRP : ₹599.00
Imprint: Penguin Audio
Published:
ISBN:
Imprint: India Penguin Modern Classics
Published: Jan/2019
ISBN: 9789386651594
Length : 512 Pages
MRP : ₹599.00
‘Magnificent . . . Ashk writes with a clear hand and is served well by Daisy Rockwell as she recreates a compelling narrative’-Dawn
Unfolding over the course of a single day, Ashk’s sweeping sequel to Falling Walls explores the inner struggles of Chetan, an aspiring young writer, as he roams the labyrinthine streets of 1930s’ Jalandhar, haunted by his thwarted ambitions but intent on fulfilling his dreams.
Married to a woman he does not love while pining for another man’s wife, Chetan must also face the prospect of taking up a dead-end job in the wake of his recent failures in Lahore and Shimla. And as he trudges around Jalandhar, constantly running into people he’d rather avoid, he finds himself confronting the tangled memories, frailties and fears that assail him.
Intensely poignant and vividly evocative, In the City a Mirror Wandering is an exploration of not only a dynamic, bustling city but also the rich tapestry of human emotion that consumes us all.
UPENDRANATH ASHK, 1910-1996, was one of Hindi literature's best known and most controversial authors. Ashk was born in Jalandhar and spent the early part of his writing career as an Urdu author in Lahore. Encouraged by Premchand, he switched to Hindi, and a few years before Partition, moved to Bombay, Delhi and finally Allahabad in 1948, where he spent the rest of his life. By the time of his death, Ashk's phenomenally large oeuvre spanned over a hundred volumes of fiction, poetry, memoir, criticism and translation. Ashk is perhaps best known for his six-volume novel cycle, Girti Divarein, or Falling Walls-an intensely detailed chronicle of the travails of a young Punjabi man attempting to become a writer-which has earned the author comparisons to Marcel Proust. Ashk was the recipient of numerous prizes and awards during his lifetime for his masterful portrayal, by turns humorous and remarkably profound, of the everyday lives of ordinary people.
Daisy Rockwell is an artist, writer, and Hindi-Urdu translator. Her highly acclaimed translations include Bhisham Sahni’s Tamas and Khadija Mastur's The Women's Courtyard. Her translation of Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand was the winner of the 2022 International Booker Prize and the 2022 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. As well as essays on literature and art, she has written Upendranath Ashk: A Critical Biography, The Little Book of Terror and the novel Taste.
The day we had all been waiting for finally arrived at our office some time ago. Our office doors swung open and in came the two women who created history by bringing to life, the first Hindi and South Asian language book to win the International Booker. We look at them like icons, but they […]