About Book
The most widely read and the most translated writer in Urdu, Saadat Hasan Manto constantly challenged the hypocrisy and sham morality of civilized society. Out of this rebellious streak, and fuelled by the burning restlessness of his imagination, he produced a powerful body of work that continues to challenge complacency and demand attention.
More than half a century after his death at the age of forty-three in Lahore, he remains anathema to the establishment. Saadat Hasan Manto wanted to be remembered as the greatest short-story writer ever; as his epitaph would have it, his only competitor is God. Indeed, he is best known for his Partition stories, where he lays bare the absurdity of the religious divide that would forever unhinge the lives of two nations.
No other writer has been able to capture the devastation of Partition as Manto has. But, as this exhaustive anthology shows, Manto?s best work sweeps across genres and states of mind. The short stories shock and seduce; the sketches wring out the sharp brevity of truth; the biographical portraits entice with their candour; the letters to Uncle Sam drip with sarcasm; while the lone play smoulders with desire that finds fulfilment in death. Manto also gives us his take on the Bombay film world of his time, a world that both amused and fascinated him and which he recalled with nostalgia in his last years.
This collection also carries intimate observations about Manto by his family and friends. Khalid Hasan?s brilliant translation brings to English Manto?s bite, his lyricism and the authenticity of his voice, making Bitter Fruit the perfect treasury for long-time fans of Manto and first-time readers alike.
About Author
Saadat Hasan Manto, the most widely read and the most controversial short-story writer in Urdu, was born on 11 May 1912 at Samrala in Punjab?s Ludhiana district.
In a literary, journalistic, radio scripting and film-writing career spread over more than two decades, he produced twenty-two collections of short stories, one novel, five collections of radio plays, three collections of essays, two collections of personal sketches and many scripts for films.
He was tried for obscenity half a dozen times, thrice before and thrice after independence. Some of Manto?s greatest work was produced in the last seven years of his life, a time of great financial and emotional hardship for him.
He died several months short of his forty-third birthday, in January 1955, in Lahore