The Fifth Lash and Other Stories
by Anis Shivani
The old securities everywhere are gone; identities are switched and tried on and abandoned faster than ever; the media landscape saturates individual consciousness, and makes lies out of centuries of tradition and heroes of plastic idols. The Fifth Lash and Other Stories daringly enters this phantasmagoric cauldron, where appearance and reality have seamlessly blended, to complicate the picture even further, to turn all we think we know about Islam and Pakistan on its head. The “truth” will never set you free, is the ironic signature of the original voice defining this collection.
Some of the stories in this new collection have appeared in turnrow, Nimrod, Phoebe, Other Voices, Asia Literary Review, Confrontation, Crazyhorse, and other literary journals.
Praise for The Fifth Lash
“Anis Shivani’s stories are a superb mixture of insight, empathy, humor, and pathos. The Fith Lash is a collection to be revisited and re-read.”
—Ron Rash
“Anis Shivani’s stories have both style and vigour. The Fifth Lash is an intriguing, intelligent, provocative collection by a tough, confident storyteller.”
—Aamer Hussein