Publisher's Synopsis
The Eastern Brew is a translation of some selected Urdu short stories written by prominent writers from India and Pakistan. These stories are as varied in their subject matters as they are in the assortment of writers presented in this anthology. The selection is not incidental or impulsive but premeditated and is based on careful consideration. It encapsulates almost fifty years of Urdu short story writing from both sides of the border, representing the vicissitudes of life and times during the years of drastic political and social changes and the struggles and conflicts, psychological or otherwise, of characters living through those tumultuous times. Though it is not possible to collect the works of representative writers of Urdu fiction spanning more than two generations in a short anthology of fifteen stories, an attempt has, nevertheless, been made to bring before the English readers the various threads of human relationships, social, personal, and psychological, that weaved or warped the life of characters in the exciting stories in this collection. The anthology thus provides to the readers of other languages an insight into the changing patterns and concerns of Urdu literary art during a span of two generations and the life and times of people in the subcontinent living through the change.
