Written in a style at once witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating, it's in her characters-the sparky children, the audacious grandmothers, the buffoonish maulvis and thug brothers, the oft-hapless husbands, and the mothers above all, surviving their feelings at great cost-that Mushtaq emerges as an astonishing writer and observer of human nature. Her opus has garnered both censure from conservative quarters as well as India's most prestigious literary awards. This is a collection sure to be read for years to come.