Kallo and Other Stories

For readers of Ismat Chughtai, Banu Mushtaq and Saadat Hasan Manto.

A tooth powder seller's muse. A moustache-wielding matriarch. A beautician who keeps close company with rats.

The women in this unconventional collection of short stories break out of their societal bonds, challenge norms and write their own fates.

First published in Urdu in 2021 to critical acclaim, Kallo opens readers to a new world. Men, though instrumental, are incidental; piety and grime jostle for space; queerness of all...