What Will You Give for This Beauty?

Qaim Deen sneaks across the Sutlej, into India, to steal cattle—braving cobras, wild boars and the border patrol—and gives generously of his earnings to those in need. Young Nauman's forbidden love for Nuzhat leads him to seek refuge in a holy place, at a terrible cost to his family. Maulvi Abdur Rahman and his neighbour's bull terrier engage in a hilarious and unrelenting battle of wits. Could Kareeman's beauty, which hits the village like a storm, be the salvation of Ghafoora the Dimwit? Ali Natiq brings vividly alive the world of the Punjab countryside, with its undercurrent of violence and poverty, through feuds and feasts, hunts and marriages, mobs and floods, elopements and gossip. Acrobats, holy men, thieves, peasants, landowners, masons and courtesans populate the stories of his virtuoso debut collection What Will You Give for This Beauty? Possessed of dark irony and a searing moral vision, Ali Akbar Natiq is a storyteller of exceptional talent and manifest power.