What do you think?
Rate this book
The Death of Sheherzad
'Intizar Husain’s stories often tread that twilight
zone between fable and parable. His narratives
are spun on an oriental loom' - Keki N. Daruwalla
A man scours the town he left fifty years ago for some little evidence of past joys. Javed, who’s returned to Lahore from East Pakistan, won’t speak of what he witnessed ‘there’. An old woman boards a train full of dead ancestors in her dreams. A sage who cannot control his anger must seek out a butcher for redemption. Mahaban, home of the monkeys once, is now a city full of human beings. Sheherzad, who once told Emperor Shaharyar a thousand-and-one stories, is now an old woman who has forgotten her yarns of fantasy.
The stories in The Death of Sheherzad ably represent Intizar
Husain’s oeuvre, defying narrative tradition and exploring the past, specifically Partition, as a means of unravelling the present. He imaginatively revisits a syncretic, tolerant
pluralistic past to analyse why the tide turned so irreversibly. Questioning everything – faith, violence, society – Husain probes the horrors of Partition in a manner as oblique as it is trenchant. Imbued with dark wit and literary brilliance, these stories at once shock, agitate and entertain.
zone between fable and parable. His narratives
are spun on an oriental loom' - Keki N. Daruwalla
A man scours the town he left fifty years ago for some little evidence of past joys. Javed, who’s returned to Lahore from East Pakistan, won’t speak of what he witnessed ‘there’. An old woman boards a train full of dead ancestors in her dreams. A sage who cannot control his anger must seek out a butcher for redemption. Mahaban, home of the monkeys once, is now a city full of human beings. Sheherzad, who once told Emperor Shaharyar a thousand-and-one stories, is now an old woman who has forgotten her yarns of fantasy.
The stories in The Death of Sheherzad ably represent Intizar
Husain’s oeuvre, defying narrative tradition and exploring the past, specifically Partition, as a means of unravelling the present. He imaginatively revisits a syncretic, tolerant
pluralistic past to analyse why the tide turned so irreversibly. Questioning everything – faith, violence, society – Husain probes the horrors of Partition in a manner as oblique as it is trenchant. Imbued with dark wit and literary brilliance, these stories at once shock, agitate and entertain.
180 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2014
3 people are currently reading
155 people want to read
About the author
Intizar Husain
80 books112 followersIntizar Husain (1925–2016) was a journalist, short-story writer, and novelist, widely considered one of the most significant fiction writers in Urdu. Born in Dibai, Bulandshahr, in British-administered India, he migrated to Pakistan in 1947 and lived in Lahore. Besides Basti, he was the author of two other novels, Naya Gar (The New House), which paints a picture of Pakistan during the ten-year dictatorship of the Islamic fundamentalist General Zia-ul-Haq, and Agay Sumandar Hai (Beyond Is the Sea), which juxtaposes the spiraling urban violence of contemporary Karachi with a vision of the lost Islamic realm of al-Andalus. Collections of Husain’s celebrated short stories have appeared in English under the titles Leaves, The Seventh Door, A Chronicle of the Peacocks, and An Unwritten Epic.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 30, 2016
I give up. I am sorry if this is blasphemous but that is as much as I can take of this book. I did not understand anything - the stories, the purpose of writing them, the message if any - nothing. Personally for me - the stories neither had a head or tail with a lot of mumbo jumbo that only those can understand who love Pulitzer aspiring writers.
May 30, 2024
After reading Intizar Husain's 'Basti', I wanted to read another book by him. I decided to read this collection of short stories, 'The Death of Sheherzad'.
'The Death of Sheherzad' has 15 short stories selected from different collections. They are on different themes. Some of them are about Partition, some of them are about the Bangladeshi war, some of them are about Islamic history, some of them are on Hindu mythology. The wide range of themes is fascinating! Some of the stories have a surreal, dreamy feel to it, while others are more straightforward. One of them doesn't sound like a story but feels like an essay (Writer Hijab Imtiaz makes a phone call to Intizar Husain in that story 😊). In one story, 'Circle', the narrator dreams about the place he lived in when he was younger. It was a very beautiful surreal story and it was one of my favourites. 'Those Who Are Lost' is about four people who are stuck together in the middle of nowhere, they've forgotten their past, they've forgotten their names, and they don't know what to do and which way to go. 'Clouds' is about a boy who goes in search of the rain clouds which have suddenly disappeared without giving any rain. 'Needlessly' is about a man who wants to laugh aloud but who is not able to do that because of social rules. 'Between Me and the Story' is the essay type story and it is about the aftermath of the time when Pakistan exploded the atom bomb. 'The Death of Sheherzad' – I was scared of reading this story because I didn't want Sheherzad to die, and fortunately (spoiler alert!) she doesn't, but something sad happens to her at the end of the story and it is heartbreaking. 'Reserved Seat' is about a grandmother who has a strange dream which feels like a dark premonition.
These were all my favourite stories, but I really liked all the stories in the book. I asked myself when I read the book on whether I'd have understood some of the stories, especially the surreal ones, if I'd read them when I was younger, when my literary taste was simple. I also asked myself whether my mom or my dad would have understood these stories if they had read it. I feel that the answers to both these questions is 'No'. I feel that to understand and appreciate some of the stories in all their complexity, I'd need the context that I have now, the kind of context we acquire after years of unstructured reading. I don't think I'd have been able to appreciate the incredibly beautiful 'Circle' in all its depth if I'd read it when I was a student. It just means that some of Intizar Husain's short stories are not straightforward reads. They are not like Jeffrey Archer short stories. But I'm happy that I'm in the right place in my literary journey to understand and appreciate them.
At the end of the book, there is a beautiful essay by the translator Rakhshanda Jalil in which she puts the author's life and work in context.
I loved 'The Death of Sheherzad'. I have a feeling now that Intizar Husain might be an even much better short story writer. I loved his novel 'Basti', but I liked this even more. There is just one more short story collection of his in English translation. Hoping to read that soon. My fond wish is that the publishers take all Intizar Husain's short stories and translate them into English and put them in one special 1000-page hardback edition and include a 50-page introduction in it by a literary scholar. I want that edition. I hope they'll do it.
Sharing some of my favourite passages from the book.
From 'Circle'
"Before I begin my story, I must first outline the map of that town for you. But before I explain that to you, you too must understand that towns are not just about geography; neither are they just a cluster of dwellings rooted in solid earth. A part of them is on the ground, the rest inside one's mind and soul. And that is why there is no point in giving the geographical name of that town. Of course, you can see the town as it stands with your eyes, but there is far more to it than that which meets the eye."
"I do believe that things reveal their true self only in dreams. Walls and niches, streets and alleys, plants and trees, the earth and the sky – it is only after we stop seeing them with our eyes that we truly begin to see them, when they start coming in our dreams and calling out to us. First in the first dream, then in the second, then the third and so on. It is after so many dreams that my town has come completely alive before my eyes, and I am now able to see it fully."
From 'Needlessly'
"To ask why are you doing this at every turn in life, on every occasion – how absurd it is! Surely one should do certain things that are reasonless, meaningless. Why must I ask myself why I laugh or even why I need to laugh? I want to laugh, that's it... For no reason, just like that ...
By now he had sufficiently convinced himself with his own arguments and counter-arguments, but how was he to make others see things his way? Others always ask why one is laughing or crying. As he thought of more reasons to bolster his arguments, he took a look around. Everywhere, he saw at least one thing that could make one laugh. Despite so much material for laughter, why do people always ask 'why' when someone is laughing? And why is it necessary to give a reason : this is why I am laughing? It seemed surprising to him that despite the abundance of reasons to laugh, one laughed so rarely..."
Have you read 'The Death of Sheherzad'? What do you think about it?
'The Death of Sheherzad' has 15 short stories selected from different collections. They are on different themes. Some of them are about Partition, some of them are about the Bangladeshi war, some of them are about Islamic history, some of them are on Hindu mythology. The wide range of themes is fascinating! Some of the stories have a surreal, dreamy feel to it, while others are more straightforward. One of them doesn't sound like a story but feels like an essay (Writer Hijab Imtiaz makes a phone call to Intizar Husain in that story 😊). In one story, 'Circle', the narrator dreams about the place he lived in when he was younger. It was a very beautiful surreal story and it was one of my favourites. 'Those Who Are Lost' is about four people who are stuck together in the middle of nowhere, they've forgotten their past, they've forgotten their names, and they don't know what to do and which way to go. 'Clouds' is about a boy who goes in search of the rain clouds which have suddenly disappeared without giving any rain. 'Needlessly' is about a man who wants to laugh aloud but who is not able to do that because of social rules. 'Between Me and the Story' is the essay type story and it is about the aftermath of the time when Pakistan exploded the atom bomb. 'The Death of Sheherzad' – I was scared of reading this story because I didn't want Sheherzad to die, and fortunately (spoiler alert!) she doesn't, but something sad happens to her at the end of the story and it is heartbreaking. 'Reserved Seat' is about a grandmother who has a strange dream which feels like a dark premonition.
These were all my favourite stories, but I really liked all the stories in the book. I asked myself when I read the book on whether I'd have understood some of the stories, especially the surreal ones, if I'd read them when I was younger, when my literary taste was simple. I also asked myself whether my mom or my dad would have understood these stories if they had read it. I feel that the answers to both these questions is 'No'. I feel that to understand and appreciate some of the stories in all their complexity, I'd need the context that I have now, the kind of context we acquire after years of unstructured reading. I don't think I'd have been able to appreciate the incredibly beautiful 'Circle' in all its depth if I'd read it when I was a student. It just means that some of Intizar Husain's short stories are not straightforward reads. They are not like Jeffrey Archer short stories. But I'm happy that I'm in the right place in my literary journey to understand and appreciate them.
At the end of the book, there is a beautiful essay by the translator Rakhshanda Jalil in which she puts the author's life and work in context.
I loved 'The Death of Sheherzad'. I have a feeling now that Intizar Husain might be an even much better short story writer. I loved his novel 'Basti', but I liked this even more. There is just one more short story collection of his in English translation. Hoping to read that soon. My fond wish is that the publishers take all Intizar Husain's short stories and translate them into English and put them in one special 1000-page hardback edition and include a 50-page introduction in it by a literary scholar. I want that edition. I hope they'll do it.
Sharing some of my favourite passages from the book.
From 'Circle'
"Before I begin my story, I must first outline the map of that town for you. But before I explain that to you, you too must understand that towns are not just about geography; neither are they just a cluster of dwellings rooted in solid earth. A part of them is on the ground, the rest inside one's mind and soul. And that is why there is no point in giving the geographical name of that town. Of course, you can see the town as it stands with your eyes, but there is far more to it than that which meets the eye."
"I do believe that things reveal their true self only in dreams. Walls and niches, streets and alleys, plants and trees, the earth and the sky – it is only after we stop seeing them with our eyes that we truly begin to see them, when they start coming in our dreams and calling out to us. First in the first dream, then in the second, then the third and so on. It is after so many dreams that my town has come completely alive before my eyes, and I am now able to see it fully."
From 'Needlessly'
"To ask why are you doing this at every turn in life, on every occasion – how absurd it is! Surely one should do certain things that are reasonless, meaningless. Why must I ask myself why I laugh or even why I need to laugh? I want to laugh, that's it... For no reason, just like that ...
By now he had sufficiently convinced himself with his own arguments and counter-arguments, but how was he to make others see things his way? Others always ask why one is laughing or crying. As he thought of more reasons to bolster his arguments, he took a look around. Everywhere, he saw at least one thing that could make one laugh. Despite so much material for laughter, why do people always ask 'why' when someone is laughing? And why is it necessary to give a reason : this is why I am laughing? It seemed surprising to him that despite the abundance of reasons to laugh, one laughed so rarely..."
Have you read 'The Death of Sheherzad'? What do you think about it?
August 7, 2015
The book, titled as The Death of Sheherzad is a collection of fifteen short stories (with the title being one such short story in the book) written in Urdu by Intizar Husain originally in Urdu, translated by Rakshanda Jalil. We’re always told never to judge a book by its cover, but that is exactly what I did in this case, I wanted to explore the literature of the neighbouring Pakistan, the write-up of the publisher seemed interesting and of course, cover of the book looked pretty and I couldn’t resist buying the book after coming to know that this nominated for the Man Booker International Prize, 2013. But the question would always arise; did my risk of merely judging a book by its cover pay off?
Without a second thought, I’d answer yes, although, the very fact that I’m answering yes to this question only indicates that I’ve changed a lot, as a reader for one, the stories in the book are very, very abstract and at the same time, were on some very deep topics, like the partition, the idea of destiny and one of the stories really had a very interesting take on the India-Pakistan ‘nuclear powered state’ race. However, I really enjoyed the space provided by the author to the author to the reader to arrive at conclusions on the stories and the message he tries to convey, because, as much as they’re abstract, the endings are also at times, abrupt. The imagery, the subtlety in his writing, allowed me to create interesting visuals in my mind especially in some of the stories like Reserved Seat, Dream and Reality and of course, The Death of Sheherzad. The collection of stories also displayed the diverse interests of Intizar Husain, writing on topics such as the partition, the Bangladesh Liberation War, then moving on to philosophical topics such as destiny, certain stories based on Koranic anecdotes, such as The Wall (tongue of Yajooj and Majooj) and Dream and Reality(Ubayd’s governorship of Kufa and Basra) and also one from the Jataka Tales even though I’d score that down on originality as I had the exact same story in my 9th class Sanskrit book during school.
The only drawback I felt was that every story had the same macabre setting, despite the diversity of topics and eventually, it became very predictable as to how the story was going to end and what the author was coming to. Moreover, this book certainly is not meant for readers across all genres, including my own self two years back who loved to read only fast paced mysteries or thrillers.
However, I’d say in the end that this is an excellent book with a very nice collection of short stories; this has made me even more interested in a lot of other, longer works of Husain. If you are someone who enjoys drawing your own conclusions out of stories, this book is meant for you.
Rating – 4/5
Have a nice day,
Andy
Without a second thought, I’d answer yes, although, the very fact that I’m answering yes to this question only indicates that I’ve changed a lot, as a reader for one, the stories in the book are very, very abstract and at the same time, were on some very deep topics, like the partition, the idea of destiny and one of the stories really had a very interesting take on the India-Pakistan ‘nuclear powered state’ race. However, I really enjoyed the space provided by the author to the author to the reader to arrive at conclusions on the stories and the message he tries to convey, because, as much as they’re abstract, the endings are also at times, abrupt. The imagery, the subtlety in his writing, allowed me to create interesting visuals in my mind especially in some of the stories like Reserved Seat, Dream and Reality and of course, The Death of Sheherzad. The collection of stories also displayed the diverse interests of Intizar Husain, writing on topics such as the partition, the Bangladesh Liberation War, then moving on to philosophical topics such as destiny, certain stories based on Koranic anecdotes, such as The Wall (tongue of Yajooj and Majooj) and Dream and Reality(Ubayd’s governorship of Kufa and Basra) and also one from the Jataka Tales even though I’d score that down on originality as I had the exact same story in my 9th class Sanskrit book during school.
The only drawback I felt was that every story had the same macabre setting, despite the diversity of topics and eventually, it became very predictable as to how the story was going to end and what the author was coming to. Moreover, this book certainly is not meant for readers across all genres, including my own self two years back who loved to read only fast paced mysteries or thrillers.
However, I’d say in the end that this is an excellent book with a very nice collection of short stories; this has made me even more interested in a lot of other, longer works of Husain. If you are someone who enjoys drawing your own conclusions out of stories, this book is meant for you.
Rating – 4/5
Have a nice day,
Andy
March 14, 2024
Intezar Hussain's 'The Death of Sheherzad' stands as a masterful exploration that transcends storytelling boundaries. In this succinct yet profound narrative, Hussain intricately dissects the relationship between author and creation, illuminating the transformative impact of storytelling on both the creator and the audience. Across a mere three and a half pages, Hussain deftly navigates themes of purpose, faith, and the enduring essence of narrative.
Set within a kingdom shrouded in violence, each night the king weds a new virgin, destined to meet her demise by morning's blade. Yet, Sheherzad's storytelling prowess defies this fate, captivating both monarch and reader alike with her tales spanning one thousand and one nights. Through this enthralling narrative, Hussain magnificently illustrates storytelling's ability to transcend temporal and spatial confines, offering solace and refuge amidst life's harsh realities.
Moreover, 'The Death of Sheherzad' delves beyond the author's power, spotlighting the enduring influence of readers and listeners. Hussain skillfully unveils how, while authors may forget their work, readers retain every word across generations. This insight adds profound depth, inviting reflection on literature's enduring impact on the human psyche. The narrative powerfully underscores how authors may perish upon abandoning their writing purpose, highlighting the inseparable bond between writer and craft.
Furthermore, Hussain poignantly suggests that writing flourishes amidst adversity, serving as a cathartic release for both author and reader. 'The Death of Sheherzad' emerges not merely as a story but as a profound meditation on the symbiotic relationship between writer and reader. It beckons contemplation on literature's role in shaping our worldview and sense of belonging. Despite its brevity, the narrative's resonance lingers long after the final page, a testament to Hussain's narrative mastery.
I wholeheartedly recommend 'The Death of Sheherzad' to all seeking a riveting exploration of storytelling's power. It stands as a literary gem deserving of readers from all walks of life.
Set within a kingdom shrouded in violence, each night the king weds a new virgin, destined to meet her demise by morning's blade. Yet, Sheherzad's storytelling prowess defies this fate, captivating both monarch and reader alike with her tales spanning one thousand and one nights. Through this enthralling narrative, Hussain magnificently illustrates storytelling's ability to transcend temporal and spatial confines, offering solace and refuge amidst life's harsh realities.
Moreover, 'The Death of Sheherzad' delves beyond the author's power, spotlighting the enduring influence of readers and listeners. Hussain skillfully unveils how, while authors may forget their work, readers retain every word across generations. This insight adds profound depth, inviting reflection on literature's enduring impact on the human psyche. The narrative powerfully underscores how authors may perish upon abandoning their writing purpose, highlighting the inseparable bond between writer and craft.
Furthermore, Hussain poignantly suggests that writing flourishes amidst adversity, serving as a cathartic release for both author and reader. 'The Death of Sheherzad' emerges not merely as a story but as a profound meditation on the symbiotic relationship between writer and reader. It beckons contemplation on literature's role in shaping our worldview and sense of belonging. Despite its brevity, the narrative's resonance lingers long after the final page, a testament to Hussain's narrative mastery.
I wholeheartedly recommend 'The Death of Sheherzad' to all seeking a riveting exploration of storytelling's power. It stands as a literary gem deserving of readers from all walks of life.
April 17, 2020
'The Death of Sheherzad' is an interesting mix, something like Arabian Nights meets Franz Kafka. There are fantastical elements, combined with realist lore and the absurdism of the 'modernist' writers.
Intizar Husain writes effortlessly and his shorts stories are perfect to read in the night, just before you go to bed, the material gives you something to chew on.
One or two stories felt a little incomplete, making the reader want more, unsatisfied with an abrupt end. But most other stories in this book end neatly, with some philosophy tying it up.
Intizar Husain writes effortlessly and his shorts stories are perfect to read in the night, just before you go to bed, the material gives you something to chew on.
One or two stories felt a little incomplete, making the reader want more, unsatisfied with an abrupt end. But most other stories in this book end neatly, with some philosophy tying it up.
January 20, 2025
Couldn't get my head around most of these stories.
July 26, 2023
Every single story shook me to my core. Each was a carefully written reflection on humanity within society, leaving with shivers in my spine and chills in my bones.
January 16, 2016
So many lives and dreams woven together in strings of words. Proves words can be mystical and stories a reflection of reality.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews