Toba Tek Singh and Other Stories

Saadat Hasan Manto · 1912–1955 · Pakistan / India

Originally Toba Tek Singh and Other Stories (Urdu) · translated by Khalid Hasan

Why it matters

In an asylum whose lunatics must be sorted by nation, one man refuses to belong to either. Manto's title story is the definitive fiction of Partition's insanity: bloodshed and border-drawing seen without a shred of moralizing.

At a glance

Spare, ironic prose but demands attention to unstated historical context of Partition.