Shahidul Zahir (1953–2008) completed his post-graduation at the University of Dhaka and the American University, Washington D.C., and joined the civil services in Bangladesh. He is best known for his novella, Jibon O Rajnoitik Bastobota (1987). Shahidul Zahir’s oeuvre includes the short story collections Parapar (1985), Dumurkheko Manush O Onyanno Golpo (2000), and Dolu Nodir Haowa O Onyanno Golpo (2004), the novels Shey Raate Purnima Chhilo (1995) and Mukher Dike Dekhi (2006), and the novella Abu Ibrahimer Mrityu (2009). “ V. Ramaswamy has translated Subimal Misra’s The Golden Gandhi Statue from America: Early Stories, Wild Animals Prohibited: Stories, Anti-Stories, and This Could Have Become Ramayan Chamar’s Tale: Two Anti-Novels, Manoranjan Byapari’s novel The Runaway Boy, and Memories of Arrival: A Voice from the Margins by Adhir Biswas. His translation of Shahidul Zahir’s Life and Political Reality: Two Novellas was published in 2022.
<p>Born in 1953 in Old Dhaka, Shahidul Zahir published only six works in his short life – but these are some of the most unique and powerful works of fiction to have come out of the subcontinent. With his own particular blend of surrealism, folklore, oral storytelling traditions, magic realism, a searing understanding of social and political reality, and rare clarity of vision, he created a truly extraordinary oeuvre.</p><p><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Life and Political Reality is the work that established his reputation and granted him cult status in Bangladesh. It examines the 1971 war and its aftermath; a treatise on liberation, and the destruction of the idealism and spirit of post-war Bangladesh, told in a single, corrosive, stream-of-consciousness paragraph.</span><br></p><p><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Abu Ibrahim’s Death is a quieter companion novella, but one that is equally concerned with idealism and compromise, as it studies with deep empathy and nuance the fall of its titular protagonist.</span><br></p><p><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Together, these two novellas make for a superb introduction to a truly brilliant shooting star in the literary firmament of Bangladesh and the world.</span><br></p>
