Yashpal
Translated from the Hindi by Anand
Penguin Modern Classics,
1119 pages, Rs 599
Considered the greatest Partition novel ever written, Jootha Sach was first published in two volumes in 1958 and 1960 respectively. It begins in the early 1940s in Lahore and ends in 1957 in Delhi, portraying a vast array of characters whose lives are forever altered by the carnage on the eve of Independence. Available in English for the first time, this novel will, says critic Harish Trivedi, recast Anglophone discourse on Partition in literature, which until now seemed like “talking about Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark.”
COMMENT