In 2024 I read Bombay Stories by Saadat Hasan Manto.
Not totally thrilled with this collection. Could be due to gaps in cultural knowledge or problems of translation.
Overall there was nothing too memorable about the stories, save for one fantastic simile that’s worth sharing:
“When she looked at me again, her eyes had lost their effect, and her face seemed like a ransacked empire, a ravaged country.” [p200]
The essays at the end were more compelling. They might have helped better ground the work if they had been included at the beginning of the collection rather than the end.