A wet afternoon is Khalid Hasan’s superlative translation of some of Saadat Hasan Manto’s greatest works, his short stories and the sketches he wrote of the people around him. Manto penned stories that brought to the fore the hypocrisy in our hearts with great contrast. He has been condemned ever since because he chose to depict this through the characters he saw all around him-the pimps, courtesans and prostitutes that were the soul of the Bombay he inhabited. Despite this seemingly far removed social milieu, what he grapples with is hardly alien to more mainstream society

A patchwork of impressions and reminiscences, hopes and aspirations. That is what this wonderful book is about, but only in part. The author, Mariam Salam, has also skillfully interwoven the amazing and inspiring account of her transition from West to East; all the devotion, travail and sacrifices it entailed; all the delights, too