{"product_id":"the-stained-glass-window","title":"The Stained-Glass Window","description":"\u003cp\u003eYou could tell\u003cbr\u003e\nthe city was thirsty. If you listened carefully, you could hear it whispering\u003cbr\u003e\nits complaint to a dry, sun-bleached, pitiless sky. Generous banyan and leafy\u003cbr\u003e\nneem laden with thick films of dust stood as still as Druid stones. Passing\u003cbr\u003e\nvehicles blew up puffs, which settled swiftly like a fine film on shoes, bare\u003cbr\u003e\nfeet, paws and pavements like an old threadbare blanket. Stray dogs, their\u003cbr\u003e\ntongues lolling with each panting breath, sprawled on baking pavements. Choked\u003cbr\u003e\nwith haze, the sky descended to an arm's length, squeezing the breath out of\u003cbr\u003e\neverything that lived. ~ Navid\u003cbr\u003e\nShahzad, The Fourth Day.and But do we\u003cbr\u003e\nreally suffer from ourselves, he thought? Or is hell made for us by other\u003cbr\u003e\npeople, as Sartre wrote? Envy, malice, greed: don't they affect us even when we\u003cbr\u003e\nfeel we are strong? He remembered the bearded white-robed faqir, rattling with\u003cbr\u003e\nbells and green beads and chanting incomprehensible verses, who'd come to their\u003cbr\u003e\ndoor in Karachi one morning.and ~\u003cbr\u003e\nAamer Husein, The Garden Spy.and\u003c\/p\u003e \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eAsim and Minha\u003cbr\u003e\nteared up a little at the children's effort to put up brave faces. They wanted\u003cbr\u003e\nto embrace the children, but knew better than that. Asim sensed the tension in\u003cbr\u003e\nthe room. Indeed, it was a difficult time when one had to learn how to maintain\u003cbr\u003e\nthe proper etiquettes of social distancing with others, even if one lived in\u003cbr\u003e\nthe same house as them. ~ Attiya\u003cbr\u003e\nDawood, Unlearning The Ropes.The Stained-Glass Window weaves a\u003cbr\u003e\ntapestry of the strict lockdowns, the quandaries of quarantine and the\u003cbr\u003e\nanxieties of isolation that have come to represent the COVID-19 era. In this\u003cbr\u003e\ncompilation, twenty-six writers of Pakistani origin present the arc of the\u003cbr\u003e\nindividual lives affected by the chaos and urgency that has gripped the country\u003cbr\u003e\nin the wake of the health crisis. Spanning different genres and the complex\u003cbr\u003e\nemotional journeys of a varied cast of characters, the short fiction in this collection\u003cbr\u003e\nuses the public health scare as a catalyst to understand the power of love,\u003cbr\u003e\nfaith, hope and perseverance in coping with uncertainty.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sana Munir and Taha Kehar","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44213512994876,"sku":"9789698729394","price":845.75,"currency_code":"PKR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0714\/7706\/7836\/files\/The-Stained-Glass-Window.jpg?v=1776713070","url":"https:\/\/libertybooksstore.myshopify.com\/products\/the-stained-glass-window","provider":"LibertyBooksStore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}