Novel
কাশবনের কন্যা
Not translated into English
Shamsuddin Abul Kalam · 1954
Synopsis
On the coast of the Barisal region, in the south of East Bengal, live two close friends, Hossain and Shikdar. Hossain, who is thinking of the needs of his household, suddenly falls in love with the young Sakhina on seeing her and thinks of marrying her; then another woman, Meherjan, enters his life. Shikdar wants to change his life, throw himself into the struggle to live and draw from it songs of a new kind, while his attachment to Jobeda grows. The two stories move forward almost side by side.
Context
His first novel, written at the end of the forties, the book appeared only in 1954, the same year as a second, Alamnagarer Upakatha; Banglapedia ranks it, with Lalsalu, among the novels of the countryside that open the prose of East Pakistan. The narrative follows two plots almost in parallel, those of two friends, and begins with one in order to place the other gradually at the centre.
Who it is for
A rural novel with many characters, which can be read only in Bengali; the dialogue is written in the speech of Barisal, mixed with popular songs and proverbs.
Prizes and reception
The best known work of an author whose first novel had already brought him notice; it is regarded as a classic of Bengali prose.