An essential novel about the 1947 Partition in a newly revised translation by Booker Prize-winning translator Daisy Rockwell
A Penguin Classic
Bhisham Sahnis 1973 novel is a chronicle of the sectarian violence that ultimately led to the devastation of the Partition. It drew immediate and universal critical acclaim for its poignant and striking depiction of the anatomy of a bloody conflagration that comes to engulf an entire region. In a northwestern city in pre-Independence India, Nathu, a tanner, is hired to kill a pig by a shadowy figure who haunts the novel. When the animals carcass is discovered on the steps of the local mosque the next morning, simmering tensions explode into riots and massacre that grip cities and villages across the region of Punjab. The incident is the linchpin in a British plot to divide and conquer the local population by planting seeds of mistrust and hatred among many who, until the day before, had been close friends and neighbors. Tamas is a chilling reminder of the consequences of colonial rule and the consequences of religious nationalisms.
Recenzijas
It is Tamas, in either Rockwell's translation or the original Hindi, that remains an essential text for the times -- Nilanjana Roy * Business Standard *
Bhisham Sahni (Author) Bhisham Sahni (1915-2003) is considered to be among Indias greatest writers and a distinguished voice in Hindi literature having written over 100 short stories and several plays. Sahni, who was born in Rawalpindi, in present day Pakistan, was an active participant in the Quit India Movement, and settled down in India after Partition. Tamas, his most known novel, won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1975 and was subsequently adapted into a National Award-winning film by Govind Nihalani.
Siddhartha Deb (Foreword By) Born in north-eastern India in 1970, Siddhartha Deb is the author of two novels. A contributing editor to the New Republic, Deb's journalism, essays and reviews have appeared in the Guardian, the New York Times, n+1, Caravan, the Nation, the Baffler and the Times Literary Supplement. He is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the Society of Authors, the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies at Harvard University and the Howard Foundation at Brown University.
Daisy Rockwell (Translator) Daisy Rockwell is an artist, writer, and Hindi-Urdu translator living in Vermont. She is a recipient of the Vani Foundation Distinguished Translator Award and her translations have been honored with The International Booker Prize, the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation the MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Translation of a Literary Work, and the Wisconsin Prize for Poetry in Translation. Her novel Alice Sees Ghosts and Mixed Metaphors, her collection of poems about translation, is forthcoming from Bloomsbury India, and her memoir Our Friend, Art is forthcoming from Pushkin Press (UK) in 2027.
