Collection: Saadat Hasan Manto

In his short career, Saadat Hasan Manto produced a powerful and original body of work, writing over 20 collections of short stories, five radio dramas, three essay collections, one novel, and a handful of film scripts. A Muslim living in Bombay at the time of the India-Pakistan Partition, Manto was forced to migrate with his family to Lahore, where he wrote the stories conjuring the inhumanity of partition for which he is best known. Unafraid to portray street-life in Bombay—Manto unflinchingly and provocatively wrote stories filled with sex, prostitutes, pimps, and gangsters—and for this he was tried for obscenity six times. In his later years, Manto became increasingly alcoholic and died at the age of 42. He was posthumously awarded the prestigious Nishan-e-Imtiaz award by the Government of Pakistan in 2012.