Fragments of Riversong

byFarah Ghuznavi

‘Fragments of Riversong’ showcases a dozen masterfully-crafted tales that bring alive the beauty, chaos and contradictions of contemporary Bangladesh. Here are scenes from lives less often examined.A visa applicant at the US Embassy struggles with her conscience. Strange things happen when a street child finds his life intersecting with those of a wealthy housewife and a teenage schoolgirl. A guava tree becomes a source of conflict between an unorthodox grandmother and her stubborn grandchild. A successful architect suddenly finds herself the reluctant guardian of two children. A young man returns to his village in order to come to terms with bereavement. A Bangladeshi-American schoolgirl learns a hard lesson. A confident urbanite grapples with the challenges of a rural environment during a field trip. A dream holiday takes a disastrous turn for two friends. Revenge manifests in an unusually creative form within an unhappy marriage. A young child realizes she must depend on herself to survive. The search for love remains oddly familiar in a dystopian future.Like fragments from an emerging mosaic, these stories fit together to illustrate the transformation of a once-rural, riverine land into its more recent incarnation, telling the stories of the country through the voices of its people.Show more