You are wide awake again

Everyone gathered around the east end of the Shashipur to watch Sharafat Miah dig his own grave. The local kids lurked around Sharafat’s old hut, keeping a watch on the progress of the grave until their mothers came to pick them up after Maghrib.

If they knew, your mother would have said, “It’s in your head, darling,” and your father would have screamed, “Put that head in the toilet bowl where it belongs.”

As summer rolls around and our lifestyle changes to adjust to the heat, so do a lot of our books! So here are a few books that might make a good addition to this year’s summer reading list.

In my creative writing classes, whether at the University of Toronto or the Hermitage Residency in Bangladesh, I emphasise that any student of fiction must first master suspense

At around 2 AM he was awoken by the sound of Shahidun’s sniveling cries on her prayer mat. As grating as it might have sounded, he felt grateful for it to have woken him up.

Here is a list of 5 short and swift books for fellow bookworms (people who would much rather stay in than socialise) to nestle in with on this Eid day. 

The youthful adventurers in the story spare no effort in unravelling a mystery that proves as elusive as the unyielding strands of jilapi, while also exploring deeper, sweeter themes such as friendship.

Reya looks out the window of the bus, the glint of sunlight falling across her oval face makes her olive skin shimmer.

This is the first time I let you in, but you’ve already made yourself at home. You are bumbling around in my kitchen, as though you have been making me tea for a lifetime.

The top selections in poetry, flash fiction and artwork for Day 11 of the Sehri Tales challenge; prompt: Resist

Set in 1979, this is a story of monsters—the ones who prey on the vulnerable, the ones that exploit our weaknesses, and the ones that we elevate to positions of power.

“Stop mocking me, Atif! I am telling you there is something here.” 

The top selections in poetry, flash fiction and artwork for Day 6 of the Sehri Tales challenge; prompt: Relief

The top selections in poetry, flash fiction and artwork for Day 5 of the Sehri Tales challenge; prompt: Deny

Umar stood in line with all the patience in the world. He could smell the anxiety and fear in the air. The room was filled with people once glorifying death and taking pride in solitude, now filled with panic in the face of reality.

Weaving the grand themes of politics and history, the book is a revelation into how the ordinary lives within a country are buffeted by constant changes.

The voices–the wails that had called me here–were emanating from these very graves. 

How do you think I feel every time I find you hovering over the door to my classroom? Like when you’re the only passenger riding up a lift, and then it suddenly stops.

The only way they chose to do this was probably written or imprinted in our genes–a wild frenzy of carnal expressions filled their faces.