Monday, 16 April 2018

A day in the life by Anjum Hasan! Short Stories that take you places #BookReview


A Day in the Life By Anjum Hasan
Publisher: Penguin Random House
ISBN: 978-0-670-09040-2
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 230
Rating: 3.5/5


How about a book that takes you through a day in the life of 14 different characters and their stories?

I have always loved short stories and actually enjoy reading them because it takes a very short time to read a story while being amazed at how the writer puts in so much in just a few pages. Besides, its easier to finish a short stories book than a one story book!
A day in the life by Anjum Hasan is but a different take by the type of stories, the intensity of its issues and how it captures the mind of the reader. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one especially because it became like a writing dose for an entire week. Like medicine I was taking one story after each meal, twice a day – Hah! All stories are beautiful!

Intelligently weaved stories with a sly sense of writing, the book takes you through different era of the world, makes you peek into the lives of different people at different points of time making you live through an entirely new scenario and wonder how freshly the writer has brought such dynamic world into words. A lot of ironies and witty writing, engulfing into a intensely capturing of the mind of the reader, the book asks a lot of questions while also silently answering many of them.

Hassan’s characters are whimsical and on some journey which even they don’t sseem to understand well. Each story comes with new characters very different from the first one, bring an altogether new facet to the way of life. Where one woman is seen sharing a quite lovely bond with her maid, in the other story, there are newly-weds who are trying to fight with the times and make their relationship work. From describing Benaras of the old times to bringing the modern style of living – Hasan has penned down diversity of lives and adversity of characters quite well!

It was quite an intimate read with stories making you wonder about the state of vulnerability people go through, the state of their thinking and how the world becomes an outcast of shadow designed by society for them. Somewhere you shall find a sense of lingering desire in each of the characters to do something differently and that is where the strength of the story lies.

Anjum Hasan has done a beautiful play with the words and enjoyed her freedom of holding a pen to its best! It’s one of those reads where the writer has definitely made a brave use of words.

Highly recommend this book to people who live reading fiction in the short story form. The book highlights different eras, characters, places, and people in such fresh way that it shall delight a reader. Also, Sisters, Godsend, Bird Love and Nur are some of my favourites from the book!

Buy your own copy from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2qADcKI

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