Stories from the Edge

"And yet, it is these individual stories that truly flesh out and give emotional substance to great historical events."

–Razia Quader in "Escape from Pakistan"

A perfect read for the month of our victory, Stories from the Edge is an anthology of personal and deeply emotional narratives of our Liberation War. Of the fourteen "stories" of this collection, twelve are by people writing on their own peripheral experiences of 1971; other two are stories and experiences of the authors' mothers during those tumultuous days. All these stories give insights of 1971 from varied places and angles–if not edges. Coincidentally, all the protagonists of this book and nearly all the authors are women–making the peripheral perspective doubly from the fringes. This book is a glaring testament of how war affects everything and everyone in a country–politically of course–but even more so culturally and emotionally. Writing creative non-fiction, especially on a topic so close to our heart is no easy feat; but Stories from the Edge captures the vivid spectrum of emotions regarding all things 1971 movingly and graphically–offering new perspectives on the way Bangladeshi women went through the days, weeks and months that led to victory day on December, 1971. 

T. S. Marin is Lecturer of English at Primeasia University, and the Sub Editor of Literature and Reviews pages of The Daily Star.