Congratulations to Jamil Ahmad, Musharraf Ali Farooqi and Mohammad Hanif for making it to the longlist of the 2013 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature!
The books (with summaries from DSC):
Jamil Ahmad: TheWandering Falcon(Hamish Hamilton/Penguin India)
The Wandering Falcon begins with a young couple, refugees from their tribe, who have traveled to the middle of nowhere to escape the cruel punishments meted upon those who transgress the boundaries of marriage and family. Their son, Tor Baz, descended from both chiefs and outlaws, becomes “The Wandering Falcon,” a character who travels throughout the tribes, over the mountains and the plains, in the towns and tents that comprise the homes of the tribal people.
Jamil Ahmad was born in Jalandhar in 1933. He has been a member of the Civil Service of Pakistan, a Political Agent, commissioner in Dera Ismail Khan and in Swat, and chairman of the Tribal Development Corporation. He was also posted as a minister in Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul, before and during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. He now lives in Islamabad. This is his first novel.
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Musharraf Ali Farooqi: Between Clay and Dust (Aleph Book Company, India)
In an old ruined city, emptied of most of its inhabitants, Ustad Ramzi, a famous wrestler past his prime, and Gohar Jan, a well-known courtesan whose kotha once attracted the wealthy and the eminent, contemplate the former splendour of their lives and the ruthless currents of time and history that have swept them into oblivion. Powerful and haunting, Between Clay and Dust is a triumph of storytelling and a poignant exploration of love, honour, redemption and the strength that great souls find to go on when everything is lost.”
Musharraf Ali Farooqi is an author, novelist and translator. He was born in 1968 in Hyderabad, Pakistan, and now divides his time between Toronto and Karachi. He has been previously shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2011 for his novel The Story of a Widow.
More after the jump.
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