Book Review: The Ballad of Ayesha by Anisul Hoque
*Publisher: Harper perennial *ISBN: 978-93-5277-895-9
*No pages: 186 *Genre: Fiction *Cover: Paperback *Price: 299 INR *Rating: 3.5/5
My View:
Nice and interesting read after a long time, the book
is about post revolution of Bangladesh where a small town married girl called Ayesha
Begum falls under extreme situation because of war in her country; her situation
becomes worse when her husband Joynal Abedin an Air force corporal is missing.
A letter arrives at her place stating that Joynal
Abedin has been death for an attempted coup in defense force. She survives in
her hope that one day Joynal will return. I like the writing style of author; because
it is presented in flashback manner, with simple and easy language. Also the
comparison between Ayesha and Behula the protagonist of epic folk Manashamangal
is mind-blowing, what was the situation of a woman at the time of 70’s in
Bangladesh is perfectly portrayed by the author.
Based on the real incident one can find out through
the book that what would be the dilemma of the family whose bread runner were
imprisoned without any formal notice or evidence at the time of emergency in
Bangladesh.
This is first time I am reading any Bangladesh writer;
I really appreciated his work and would like to read more from him. I highly
recommend this book to those who love’s to read historical fiction.
“I received this wonderful book from Publisher in exchange
for an honest and unbiased review, a heartily thank to Harper Collins for the
book”
Blurb:
Dhaka, 2 October 1977. A military coup is thwarted,
but the exact sequence of events is shrouded in mystery. Soon after, Ayesha
Begum, recovering from the birth of her second child, receives a letter from
the Air Force stating that her husband Joynal Abedin has been sentenced to
death, convicted of insurgency. But has the verdict been carried out? If it
was, when and where was he executed? If he was indeed hanged, what has happened
to his body?
Trying to find answers to these questions, Ayesha
embarks on a long and arduous quest to search for her husband, reminiscent of
Behula’s epic journey in her effort to resurrect her dead husband Lakhinder in
the Bengali folktale Manashamangal.
Set against the backdrop of a raging famine, political
assassinations and coups that took Bangladesh by storm right after its
independence in 1971, Anisul Hoque’s The Ballad of Ayesha is as much a story of
the newly created nation as it is the story of its people.
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