Fires in an Autumn Garden: Short Stories from Urdu and the Regional Languages of Pakistan

Editor: Asif Farrukhi 

Publisher: Oxford University Press (1997)

On the heels of celebrating its fiftieth year of independence from England, Pakistan stands as a country of contradictions. Fragile politically, Pakistani history is marked with great hopes and a firm foundation, disrupted by years of sustained tension, violence and bloodshed. The fifty year commemoration has been the cause of much soul searching by politicians, historians and writers.

Fires in the Autumn Garden represents an alternative view of Pakistan—from its many great writers of fiction. Drawn from the work of writers in all the major languages of Pakistan, this collection as an attempt to comprehend the country and its history through its fiction. Included are such works as Ali Baba's The New Prophets, Ahmed Oasimi's Countrywoman, Khalida Hussain's The Wagon, Asad Mohammed Khan's Apocalypse, and Intizar Hussain's In a Dark Wood.