This vibrant and thought-provoking anthology of short stories is representative of the variety of issues that women from Bangladesh tackle in their writings. It includes stories about the 1971 War of Liberation, women’s “honour,” mother-daughter-relationships, the vagaries of marriage and contemporary political corruption. Award-winning writers such as Selina Hossain, Rizia Rahman, Makbula Manzoor, Nasreen Jahan, and Shaheen Akhtar have been represented here as well as emerging writers, the better to evoke literary voices of Bangladeshi women.

Firdous Azim is Professor of English at BRAC University, Dhaka. She as published widely on literary, cultural and women’s issues, both inside and outside the country, including The Colonial Rise of the Novel. She is an active member of Naripokkho, a woman’s activist group in Bangladesh.

Niaz Zaman is Professor of English at the University of Dhaka. Her publications include the prizewinning study A Divided Legacy: The Partition in selected Novels of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, The Crooked Neem Tree, The Dance and Other Stories, - the titular story of which won an Asiaweek Short Story Award - and Didima's Necklace and Other Stories.