Dozakhnama: Conversations in Hell

Rabisankar Bal Translated from Bengali by Arunava Sinha

Random House India

535 pages, R399

All his life, Saadat Hasan Manto hankered for conversation with just one man, Mirza Ghalib. Dozakhnama is a conversation in hell between these two greats. The result is an intellectual journey that reveals the social and political culture of the past two centuries. Rumi, Ashok Kumar, Manikarnika Ghat, Kabir, Bandra, Ismat, Mian Tansen, Lahore High Court, Munirabai, Shahjahanabad, Fraser Sahib, Tabassum, and an unnamed narrator are some of the many characters who feature in this audacious novel.