Magnificent . . . Ashk writes with a clear hand and is served well by\nDaisy Rockwell as she recreates a compelling narrative'-Dawn\nUnfolding over the course of a single day, Ashk's sweeping sequel to Falling\nWalls explores the inner struggles of Chetan, an aspiring young writer, as he\nroams the labyrinthine streets of 1930s' Jalandhar, haunted by his thwarted\nambitions but intent on fulfilling his dreams.\nSmarting from his recent failures in Lahore and Shimla, Chetan is faced with the\nprospect of taking up a dead-end job. To make matters worse, he is married to a\nwoman he does not love and is pining for another man's wife. Constrained by his\ncircumstances, wracked with remorse and regret, he desperately seeks a way\nout of his myriad problems. And as he trudges around Jalandhar, constantly\nrunning into people he'd rather avoid, Chetan finds himself confronting the\ntangled memories, frailties and fears that assail him.\nIntensely poignant and vividly evocative, In the City a Mirror Wandering is an\nexploration of not only a dynamic, bustling city but also the rich tapestry of\nhuman emotion that consumes us all.
About the Author
UPENDRANATH ASHK, 1910-1996, was one of Hindi literature's best known\nand most controversial authors. Ashk was born in Jalandhar and spent the early\npart of his writing career as an Urdu author in Lahore.\nEncouraged by Premchand, he switched to Hindi, and a few years before\nPartition, moved to Bombay, Delhi and finally Allahabad in 1948, where he spent\nthe rest of his life. By the time of his death, Ashk's phenomenally large oeuvre\nspanned over a hundred volumes of fiction, poetry, memoir, criticism and\ntranslation. Ashk is perhaps best known for his six-volume novel cycle, Girti\nDivarein, or 'Falling Walls'-an intensely detailed chronicle of the travails of a\nyoung Punjabi man attempting to become a writer-which has earned the author\ncomparisons to Marcel Proust. Ashk was the recipient of numerous prizes and\nawards during his lifetime for his masterful portrayal, by turns humorous and\nremarkably profound, of the everyday lives of ordinary people.
