Basti
Intizar Husain · 1925–2016 · Pakistan
Originally Basti (Urdu) · translated by Frances W. Pritchett
Why it matters
A schoolteacher's memories of a vanished pre-Partition hometown unfold against a new nation's wars. Pakistani Urdu fiction's essential novel of nostalgia as a form of mourning.
At a glance
historical fictionpsychological novel
Difficulty 6/10slow pace200 pagesMeditative, non-linear drift between myth, memory, and present-tense war reportage.
Where to go next
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