Mohammad Shafiqul Islam brings before us, as indeed before a non-Bengali speaking audience, contemporary Bengali literature in all its varied dimensions. Humayun Ahmed was nothing if not a master of variety, and Islam has this variety on offer through his translations. Now that Mohammad Shafiqul Islam has ventured ahead with these translations, our literary window to the world opens somewhat wider. This work should go out to the world, not merely because the stories speak of Bengali sensitivities and sensibilities in their quotidian existence but also because the world needs to understand the complexities as well as ease in which Bangladesh’s creativity has been operating. Islam’s venture is deserving of sincere appreciation. If Humayun Ahmed has painted a landscape of the Bengali literary imagination, Mohammad Shafiqul Islam has now added a dash of new beauty to that landscape through bringing to it a richness the world beyond Bangladesh cannot but be impressed with. These translations should be a spur to similar creative enterprises in the future.
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