This Other Salt

by Aamer Hussein

Overview

Betrayal, bereavement, exile, belonging – these are the themes that resonate throughout This Other Salt. A writer, torn between two loves, looks for his lost words in the gaps between memory, mourning and desire in the title story; in ‘The Lost Cantos of the Silken Tiger’ a poet revenges herself on her faithless lover by turning their romance into a legend of biblical proportions; and a teenage boy’s life uncannily begins to resemble the role he plays in a school operetta in ‘The Blue Direction’. Combining satire, legend, poetry, history and memoir, the linked stories of This Other Salt reveal an author of uncommon talent at the height of his craft.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780863565328
Publisher:	Saqi Books
Publication date:	03/01/2005
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Aamer Hussein was born in Karachi and moved to London in 1970. As well as an author, Hussein is a well-known reviewer and literary critic, contributing to the Independent and the TLS, as well as to several Pakistani national newspapers. He holds visiting posts at the University of Southampton and the University of London. He was recently awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Literature.

Table of Contents

This Other Salt
Sweet Rice
The Keeper of the Shrine
Benedetta, Amata
The Actress's Tale
The Lost Cantos of the Silken Tiger
Skies: Four Texts for an Autobiography
Birdcries
The Blue Direction
Painting on Glass

Editorial Reviews

‘Extraordinarily controlled, written in a tactile, musical prose, with a very individual sense of beauty.' Amit Chaudhuri

‘Each story, remarkable in both expansiveness and precision, sings with heartbreak, intelligence and elegy. A stunning collection.’ Kamila Shamsie

‘Poetic perfection … Drawing on legend, history, memoir, literature and film, Hussein’s stories are meant to be cupped in both hands and savoured slowly, like a cup of cardamom chai.’
Guardian

'The symbolic and intellectual complexity of Hussein's collection is undeniable.' Times Literary Supplement

'These stories are a treat for readers.'
Newsline

From the Publisher