Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poetry continues to inspire and enthral contemporary readers. The Best of Faiz consists of Shiv K. Kumar’s translations of Faiz’s most popular Urdu poems into English. The collected poems include ‘Mujh Se Pehli Si’, ‘Subhe Azadi’, ‘Sochne Do’ and ‘Bol’. This edition also includes a translator’s foreword and the original poems in nastaliq and devanagari scripts.

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES AND NPR WINNER OF THE 2023 L.A. TIMES BOOK PRIZE, ART SEIDENBAUM AWARD FOR FIRST FICTION “Stunning not only on account of the author’s talent, of which there is clearly plenty, but also in its humanity.” —New York Times Book Review (cover) Sent back to his birthplace—Lahore’s notorious red-light district—to hush up the murder of a girl, a man finds himself in an unexpected reckoning with his past. Not since childhood has Faraz returned to the Mohalla, in Lahore’s walled inner city, where women continue to pass down the art of courtesan from mother to daughter. But he still remembers the day he was abducted from the home he shared with his mother and sister there, at the direction of his powerful father, who wanted to give him a chance at a respectable life. Now Wajid, once more dictating his fate from afar, has sent Faraz back to Lahore, installing him as head of the Mohalla police station and charging him with a mission: to cover up the violent death of a young girl. It should be a simple assignment to carry out in a marginalized community, but for the first time in his career, Faraz finds himself unable to follow orders. As the city assails him with a jumble of memories, he cannot stop asking questions or winding through the walled city’s labyrinthine alleyways chasing the secrets—his family’s and his own—that risk shattering his precariously constructed existence. Profoundly intimate and propulsive, The Return of Faraz Ali is a spellbindingly assured first novel that poses a timeless question: Whom do we choose to protect, and at what price?

Maangey Allah se bas itni dua hai Rashid Main jo Urdu mein vaseeyat likhoon beta parh ley All Rashid asks of Allah is just one small gift: If I write my will in Urdu, may my son be able to read it. Urdu, one of the most widely used languages in the subcontinent, is, sadly, dying a slow death in the land where it was born and where it flourished. This definitive collection spans over 200 years of Urdu poetry, celebrating well-known and relatively unknown poets alike. It is essential reading for all who love Urdu verse and for all looking for the ideal introduction.

Faiz Ahmen Faiz is looked on as the most important Urdu poet in both India and Pakistan. This collection of his poems is representative of the best in contemporary Urdu writing. The Urdu text is presented with English translations.

It is the sunset of the Mughal Empire. The splendour of imperial Delhi flares one last time. The young daughter of a craftsman in the city elopes with an officer of the East India Company. And so we are drawn into the story of Wazir Khanam: a dazzlingly beautiful and fiercely independent woman who takes a series of lovers, including a Navab and a Mughal prince—and whom history remembers as the mother of the famous poet Dagh. But it is not just one life that this novel sets out to capture: it paints in rapturous detail an entire civilization. Beginning with the story of an enigmatic and gifted painter in a village near Kishangarh, The Mirror of Beauty embarks on an epic journey that sweeps through the death-giving deserts of Rajputana, the verdant valley of Kashmir and the glorious cosmopolis of Delhi, the craft of miniature painting and the art of carpet designing, scintillating musical performances and recurring paintings of mysterious, alluring women. Its scope breathtaking, its language beguiling, and its style sumptuous, this is a work of profound beauty, depth and power.