This Collection of Bangladeshi Short Stories Is What You Should Be Reading Right Now
Book Review of 'The Hippo Girl and Other Stories' by Shah Tazrian Ashrafi
It took me a month to finish reading this book. And then another month to start writing this book review.
As a person who is not keen on reading short stories (it’s a medium that has simply never worked for me, I’ve found myself struggling to connect with characters and story in that format), I was pleasantly surprised to find myself getting absolutely blown away by each story. There’s a depth and immersive quality to each story that makes you want to sit with it and take your time absorbing the themes.
Written by Shah Tazrian Ashrafi, 'The Hippo And Other Stories’ comprises of stories ranging from fantastical like that of ‘The Hippo Girl’ in which we witness an outcast girl's friendship with a bloat of hippos, to a story called ‘Brother’ (the first story in the collection) which narrates a tale of two brothers torn apart by the reality of living in a militarized state.
Some of my favorites included ‘My Human’, told from the perspective of a dog navigating life through a literal and metaphorical civil war. We see a dog who finds himself getting attached to ‘his human’, but struggles to get to terms with an unacceptable betrayal. Another one that stuck out for its enchanting narrative was ‘Lucky’, a tale about a young girl who is rather eccentric, to put it mildly, and faces the eventual pushback from society for being different. Amidst all this comes her older sister who struggles with her love for her younger sister, but also bogged down by the burden of being associated with her.
In this collection of 13 stories, we come to see various shades of violence. From graphic physical violence to implied class violence, one can tell that there’s a lot of pent-up anger inside the author. That, in turn, made his writing raw and sharp. The writing was literary, sure, but there was nothing pretentious about it. On the contrary, Ashrafi wrote in a beautifully lyrical way, successfully crafting an atmospheric story and transporting the reader to the harsh surroundings of Bangladesh.
If there’s one collection of stories you are planning on picking up this year, I’d highly recommend going with this marvelous piece of literature. It’s deep and introspective without being flashy about it and successfully manages to bring the Bangladeshi voice to the forefront.
The fact that the author is a young individual only makes it all the more amazing. I cannot wait to see what more he has in store for us.
Can't wait to get my hands on this one.