Natiq's short stories are some of the genre's finest in contemporary Urdu literature'-Musharraf Ali Farooqi
Possessed of dark irony and a searing moral vision, What Will You Give for This Beauty? 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 this virtuoso debut collection by Ali Akbar Natiq, a storyteller of exceptional talent and manifest power.
About the Author
ALI AKBAR NATIQ was born in 1974 in Okara, Pakistan. After his matriculation, he began working as a mason, specializing in domes and minarets, to contribute to the family income. He read widely in Urdu and Arabic, and earned his BA degree in private. His meteoric rise in the literary world began with the publication of his poems in Duniazad and stories in Aaj. Acclaimed as one of the brightest stars in Pakistan's literary firmament, Natiq has published two volumes of poetry and one collection of short stories.