Novel
সূর্য তুমি সাথী
Not translated into English
Ahmed Sofa · 1967
Synopsis
A village in the district of Chittagong. Hashim, son of Harimohan, a Hindu converted to Islam, has known oppression all his life and struggles to support his family, with his wife Sufia. The village is run by Kholu Matobbor, who concentrates power and oppression in his hands, and religion divides even families there: Hashim's Hindu grandmother cannot come to see him freely.
Context
The author wrote this novel in 1964 and 1965, in his early twenties, while still a student, and published it in 1967: it was his first book. It opens a body of work of eight novels, written intermittently, with two long interruptions, from 1973 to 1983 and from 1989 to 1994. The author himself regarded it as his masterpiece, and the text is included in his collected works, the Rochonaboli.
Who it is for
A village novel with a simple plot; it is worth knowing what tensions the partition of 1947 left between Hindus and Muslims in East Bengal.
Prizes and reception
The writer Abul Fazal was astonished that so young an author should reach such artistic maturity.