The Night of Broken Glass

Feroz Rather

This is a debut collection of interconnected stories on Kashmir, which explores life under the insurgency as well as issues of caste and gender. Showkat is made to wipe graffiti off the wall of his shop with his tongue. Rosy, a progressive, jeans-wearing “upper-caste” girl is in love with “lower-caste” Jamshid. Jamshid’s father, Gulam the cobbler, never finds his son’s bullet-riddled body. The ineffectual Nadim “Pasture” proclaims himself a full-fledged rebel. And the barbaric and tyrannical Major S has to contend with his own nightmares.

Harpercollins India, 232 pages, Rs 399