Manto: Selected Short Stories

This book is a collection of total twelve short stories written by the renowned writer Saddat Hasan Manto, who strongly opposed the partition of India. He was a progressive writer of his generation who had to face extreme brutality due to his progressive ideological writings which lays great influence on the readers. This book has been translated by @aatishalitaseer to English with his fine use of language ..I saw the film Manto before I started reading this book, and the film included various events explained in this book..As I begun my reading, the story Toba Tek Singh, touched my soul with the linear concept of partition. Before reading this story, I had an extremely narrow conception about Indians and Pakistanis, after I read it, i was thrilled to know that partition was even conducted in mental asylums on the basis of their religion and country wise division.Then another story spoke about the rivalry between the men at borders for a dog and at the first few pages it was literally funny when Indians named it CHAPPAD JHUNJHUN and then suppressing names given by Indians Pakistan soldiers gave it a name SAPPAD SUNSUN and it was hilarious in the way it was written. But after a while, it was no more funny and resulting in sacrificing an innocent life of a dog, who was seen as a toy to them claiming to be their own property and them ordering the innocent dog that brave doesn't fear death, and on the other side the innocent dog had no idea of this brutality of humand minds, but had to loose it's life as a result of human egos and grievances.But the most beautiful story I read on this book is Ten rupees which depicts cruelty of society yet the innocence of a girl. It's a must read collection of short stories

Who am I to review Manto’s literature? Reading Manto will never cease to be relevant. He’s an all-time great.

Must read

Amazing stories, fast paced and excellent narration. Every story hits you hard and is sure to leave you lost in thought for days...

Saadat Hasan Manto's stories are vivid, dangerous and troubling and they slice into the everyday world to reveal its sombre, dark heart

An okay read. My first reading of the works of Manto (Yes, they are only translations and supposedly better than the existing translations of his work).Halfway into the book I was not sure of the translations delivering the original punch. So, I looked up a few readings of the original Urdu writings on the internet and saw (for example - in the reading of 'Khol Do' in Urdu) that one has to really read it in the original to be able to appreciate Manto fully.I am hoping there are books written in the Devanagri script and are not translations! That would be my next stop in the world of Manto.

I came across this baby when I was looking for books on History of Mumbai. This book can only very loosely be tied to Mumbai's History although it has rich mentions of the city across few stories. It won't be long before you learn why Manto loved Mumbai the way he did.The stories are simple, captivating, one that leave you pondering over the tales for long after you've finished them. This was my first and surely not the last. Now I am in search of a yet bigger collection of his stories.I haven't read the Urdu stories but I read in one of the reviews that this translation is as good and as close as it could get to the actual book. So, maybe this is the book you can look for if you wish to read it.