Out of Print Author Series: Musharraf Ali Farooqi

As Aleph Books releases its first three covers to a flurry of excitement, we are thrilled to celebrate that Between Clay and Dust, a novel by Out of Print author, Musharraf Ali Farooqi is among them.

From the blurb:Ustad Ramzi was once the greatest wrestler in the land, famed for his enormous strength and unmatched technique. Young apprentices flocked to his akhara to learn his craft, fans adored him, and rival wrestling clans feared his resolve that would never admit defeat. The courtesan Gohar Jan was just as renowned. Celebrated throughout the country for her beauty and the power and melodiousness of her singing, her kotha was thronged by nobles, rich men, and infatuated admirers.

Musharraf Ali Farooqi’s new novel opens with a glimpse of these extraordinary characters in the twilight of their lives. Their skills are no longer what they once were, new challengers to their eminence have now arisen, their followers have melted away, and the adoring crowds are long gone. An immense catastrophe has laid waste to the country; its new inheritors and rulers have no time for the old ways and, stripped of their resources and their old powers, Ustad Ramzi and Gohar Jan must face their greatest challenge yet…

Powerful and haunting, Between Clay and Dust is a triumph of storytelling and a poignant exploration of love, honour, redemption and the strength that great souls find to go on when everything is lost." 

Naseeruddin Shah says of the novel: A privileged peek into the mind of the Pahalwan and Courtesan, the subcontinent's most intriguing symbols of romance. Storytelling at its best.