• For Now, It Is Night: Stories
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Archipelago Books

For Now, It Is Night: Stories

For Now, It Is Night: Stories

by Hari Krishna Kaul, translated from the Kashmiri by Gowhar Fazili, Gowhar Yaquoob, Kalpana Raina, Tanveer Ajsi

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Hari Krishna Kaul’s short stories, shaped by the social crisis and political instability in Kashmir, explore – with a sharp eye for detail, biting wit, and empathy – themes of isolation, alienation, corruption, and the social mores of a community that experienced a loss of homeland, culture, and language. His characters navigate their ever-changing environs with humor as they make uncomfortable compromises to survive. Two friends cling to their multiplication tables while the world shifts around them; a group of travelers are forced to seek shelter in a rickety hostel after a landslide; a woman faces the first days in an uneasy exile at her daughter-in-law’s Delhi home. Kaul dissects the ways we struggle to make sense of new surroundings. These glimpses of life are bittersweet and profound; Kaul’s characters carry their loneliness with wisdom and grace. Beautifully translated in a unique collaborative project, For Now, It Is Night brings many of Kaul’s resonant stories to English readers for the first time.

Additional Book Information

Series: Archipelago Books
ISBN: 9781953861788
Pages: 208
Publication Date:

Praise

These meditative, minutely-observed stories bring back to life a Kashmiri culture that is tragically fading into the past. Kaul’s observations of everyday life in the valley have a particular poignancy in light of his own displacement in 1990. The personal struggles of his characters take place against a backdrop of political turmoil, and For Now, It Is Night will bring English-speaking readers a new understanding of Kashmir, beyond the headlines.
—Hari Kunzru, author of Red Pill and White Tears

Considerable effort has gone into making this book a reality; there were significant obstacles every step of the way . . . The result of this tremendous endeavour is a collection that represents Kaul as a chronicler of his times, mapping memory and history. In delving into psyches and pedestrian realities, an enduring theme in his work is the uncertainty and ambiguity that dogs the lives of Kashmiri people . . . True to Kaul’s dedication as a writer for his people, For Now, It Is Night also shines a light on their collective endurance, adaptability, and will to march on
—Areeb Ahmad, Asymptote Journal

Kaul’s subtle collection explores the divide between Hindus and Muslims in late-20th-century Kashmir. The stories . . . tease out the tension between the two cultures through asides and observations . . . Throughout, Kaul’s lyrical prose is lucidly translated; during a quiet and stultifying summer night in “A Song of Despair,” the narrator feels “as if someone was holding the wind captive.” This mosaic of ruptured lives astonishes.
—Publishers Weekly

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