River of Fire

By Qurratulain Hyder

Book Overview

The most important novel of twentieth-century Urdu fiction. Qurratulain Hyder's River of Fire makes a bid to be recognized in the West as what it has long been acknowledged in the East: the most important novel of twentieth-century Urdu fiction. First published as Aag ka Darya in 1959, River of Fire encompasses the fates of four recurring characters over two and a half millennia: Gautam, Champa, Kamal, and CyrilBuddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian. In different eras different relations form and reform among the four: romance and war, possession and dispossession. Interweaving parables, legends, dreams, diaries, and letters, Hyder's prose is lyrical and witty. And she argues for a culture that is inclusive: River of Fire is a book that insists on the irrelevance of religion in defining Indian identity.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811215334
• ISBN13: 9780811215336
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: New Directions
• Length: 428 Pages
• Weight: 0.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.7" x 1.0" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent, enchanting and a victim of regional bias

The story begins with Nilambar Gautam, a forest university student who travels the country at the time when Buddhist ideas were sweeping through India, he mets Hari Shanker a Buddhist and falls in love with Champa, the time passes and the next Gautam, Hari Shanker and Champa surface in new era- this time it is Moghul era and the arrival of Islam in India. Abul Mansoor Kamaluddin arrives from Baghdad and meets Champa, Hari and Gautam. The characters depict the civilisational conflicts, the mingling of the two great religions and the shaping of the new nation. The third era begins with the Europian advent in Asia and with Cyril Ashley, an English, the fourth character arrives in the book. The four characters return in successive periods in different roles until the bloody partition changes the geographical boundaries of the country. The magnificent description, the vast continuum of time and the canvas of the novel places it at par with Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, if not above. Had the book translated when it had been written, the author would have been ranked above Kundera and Marquez today.

A great novel

This is one of the finest pieces of literature I have read. There is history, philosophy, psychology and above all human relationship. I like the engaging style, the weaving of the events and the passion that can be seen through the pages.