Broken Strings

by Sadaf Shahzad

(This was ranked among the Top 15 in Daastan's "A War Within" short story contest 2016 English category)

Dragged into the ravenous jaws of an impassive society, Ansa feels hopelessly lost.

A labeled troublemaker and a rebel, she dares to speak in a world full of bullies, desperate to silence her. When her screams go unheard, she finally finds her voice: loud and clear. As her self-worth awakens, she stops listening to the redundant voices.

Down but not defeated, Ansa declares war on those who sought to enslave her. She would no longer be a puppet. The strings that had held her prisoner were cut off to discard her.

Will she triumph or will the puppet masters rise again?

40 pages, Paperback

Published January 10, 2017

About the author

Sadaf Shahzad has been a bookworm since she was first able to read. Holding a MS degree in Chemistry, she is a professional content writer and blogger. You can read her rants and short stories on her creative blog, The Desi Dragoness Diaries. She is a passionate beauty blogger and aspiring makeup artist running a successful beauty blog, The Pout Painters, with her partner in crime. Her favorite book genres include epic fantasy, contemporary fiction, mystery, paranormal fiction and historical romance. Living with her parents and sisters in Lahore, she is always thinking up new ideas for blog posts and books.

You can read online or buy my short stories, Broken Strings and The Lies that Comfort Us, at the Meraqissa store here

Reviews

[Rao Javed · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very lovely story with decent characters. The story enlightened about some very realistic problems in a typical Pakistani society.

I guess the worst sin is the whole world is to play with anyone's emotions and a woman who isn't loved is naturally very emotional.

I won't say its just all feminist type of story: there was a touch in story that also shows that a woman who had a bad experience in life becomes a bit cynical about any men, which is not true. Not all men are the same. Are they?

All in all, this is a good and easy to read short story. Everyone should read it.

[Fizzah Iqbal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfection. This woman knows how to play around with words and keep you glued to the story. This is a story I am sure a lot of women will relate to and isn't that what makes a writer amazing and a story powerful? That it touches so many people's lives in a few thousand words. I would describe the lead character as a girl who is educated, passionate, caring and loving yet knows her boundaries and knows how to stand up against oppression. She has had enough people telling her how to live and this one incident is what changes her life forever. Of course I won't reveal what that is but what comes after is something every woman can relate to. That's how I feel about this story. An amazing piece written so well. - See more at: https://www.meraqissa.com/book/97#sth...