Novel
The Weary Generations
اداس نسلیں
Abdullah Hussein · 1963
Synopsis
Punjab, from the First World War to the Partition. Naeem, from the small village of Roshanpur, goes to fight in Belgium and France for the British Empire and returns decorated with the Victoria Cross. At a reception at Roshan Mahal, on Queen's Road, he falls in love with Azra, whom he marries; the marriage brings him into the elite of British India, while he remains attached to his village life. In three parts, the novel passes through the trenches, peasant life, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and the Qissa Khwani massacre.
Context
The novel appeared in 1963, under a cover by Abdur Rahman Chughtai, and received the Adamjee Prize the same year. Its author himself produced the English version, published in London in 1999 by Peter Owen. Qurratulain Hyder accused him of having reused, in several chapters, the style, and sometimes whole sentences, of her own books. Rauf Parekh, in Dawn, praises details rendered with care and the tragedy of rural Punjab told in a tone of sadness.
Who it is for
In Urdu, and in the author's English version; it is better to know that the Punjab before 1947 was a single province, since divided between India and Pakistan.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as one of the greatest novels of Urdu literature; The Friday Times reads in it love, separation, exile and war.
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