River of Fire by Qurratulain Hyder - 1998 - Translated from Urdu by the author.

The Masterwork of Modern Urdu Fiction.


Urdu is a living language which, according to estimates, is spoken by close to 100 million people around the world. It is the official language of Pakistan, a status which it shares with English. It is also spoken and understood in parts of India, Bangladesh, Nepal, the Middle East, and many other countries around the world where Pakistani communities have settled.


Qurratulain Hyder’s River of Fire is considered by all the greatest work of the modern Urdu novel. 

Chronicling twenty five hundred years of life in India we are presented with a profound and sweeping collage of princes, paupers,philosophers and many points in between. Prior to completing this I read and loved two of her translated from Urdu short stories. Both short stories are historic fictions.

I am very glad I took the time to read River of Fire.  

My mind is not totally focused right now so I will share with you the quote from TLS on Amazon

“Qurratulain Hyder’s River of Fire encompasses the fates of four recurring characters over two and a half millennia. These characters become crisscrossed and strangely inseparable over different eras, forming and reforming their relationships in romance and war, in possession and dispossession. River of Fire interweaves parables, legends, dreams, diaries, and letters, forming a rich tapestry of history and human emotions and redefining Indian identity. But above all, it’s a unique pleasure to read Hyder’s singular prose style: “Lyrical and witty, occasionally idiosyncratic, it is always alluring and allusive: Flora Annie Steel and E. M. Forster encounter classical Urdu poets; Eliot and Virginia Woolf meet Faiz Ahmed Faiz” (The Times Literary Supplement).

I endorse this book for those wish to expand their knowledge of Indian literature