The Woman Who Flew

Key Features

• Urukkoo (The Woman Who Flew) is the winner of the Philips literary Award in Bangladesh
• This is a moving tale of how a long, gritty, defiant young woman can fly free in her action, thoughts, her dreams and her art.
• It addresses key existential questions: ennui of modern life, its struggle and the emptiness of existence, where art may be a savior.
• It is a searing document of the conservative milieu of the subcontinent and how women are the receiving end of patriarchal hypocrisy.

About the Book: The Woman Who Flew

An intense tale of a defiant woman beating her wings against a hostile landscape.

The Woman Who Flew (Urukkoo) tells the story of Nina, a young woman who moves from small-town Bangladesh to the megacity of Dhaka, where she soon finds herself divorced, bereaved of her newborn and trapped in a mundane existence. Hungry for fresh air, Nina strikes up a friendship with her mothers handsome ex-lover, Irfan, who encourages her to paint again. But as Nina tugs at her chains, her sexually confused ex-husband, Rezaul, insinuates himself back into her life, leaving her pregnant.

About the Authors: Nasreen Jahan, Kaiser Haq

Nasreen Jahan is a novelist, short story writer and literary editor of the fortnightly Anyadin. Her short stories began appearing in the early eighties, and after publishing five collections she published her first novel, Urukkoo (The Woman Who Flew), in 1993. It won the Philips Literary Prize. She received the Alaol Literary Award in 1995 for childrens fiction. She also received the prestigious Bangla Academy Award in 2000.

Kaisar Haq was educated at the universities of Dhaka and Warwick and is professor of English at Dhaka University currently on a visiting appointment at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh.