Hassan’s State of Affairs

Bestselling and critically acclaimed, Lahore-based Mirza Athar Baig is one of the most important contemporary Urdu writers. Hassan’s State of Affairs — his first book to be translated into English — is a surreal ride through Pakistan. It follows an accountant, Hassan, and a group of filmmakers, Masquerade Productions, who are working on Pakistan’s first surrealist film, titled This Film Cannot Be Made. As the film’s production runs into hurdles, escalating from the comic to the horrific, the text itself explodes into multiple storylines, genres and characters, and bends language and form — the result is an entirely new kind of novel. Brilliantly translated by Haider Shahbaz, this audacious, highly experimental, yet hugely entertaining book is a fitting introduction to one of the most exciting writers working in any language today.