The Demoness: The Best Bangladeshi Short Stories, 1971-2021 (Aleph Book Company, 2021)
, has found 27 best short stories to create an appetite for Bangladeshi fiction. Zaman has made sure that these stories do not lose the flavour of the original, and in the golden jubilee of this nation, the platter she has arranged can easily be devoured in one sitting such is the pace of the prose.
Bangladeshi writings often fail to get the attention they deserve in the absence of either decent translation or strategic marketing positioning. The hegemonic role of Bangla literature coming out of the other side of the border coupled with the wilful ignorance of our own literature has deprived local creative works of their expected niche.