Speaking of a fraught moment in Pakistan’s history largely surrounded by silence, Sorayya. Khan’s debut novel

is the first English-language novel to centre in its primary narrative the 1971 Pakistani civil war from both West and East Pakistani perspectives. This war resulted in the creation of Bangladesh, while what was previously West Pakistan became, simply, Pakistan. The timing of the novel’s publication—2003 by Alhamra in Pakistan; 2004 by Penguin India; and 2005 by the Publishing Laboratory of the University of North Carolina Wilmington in the US—roughly coincided with the forced declassification by the Government of Pakistan of the

and its

, written and submitted over the course of 1972-1974 and held under lock and…

1849 words

Citation: Cilano, Cara. "Noor". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 August 2022 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=40719, accessed 23 November 2024.]