Allah Miyan'S Workshop

In a small village in Awadh, fourteen-year-old Gibrans conservative father wants him to get employed in a mosque. The boy attends the madrasa, memorizes his lessons, helps his Amma at home ... and yet, on freezing Friday mornings, when he must bathe before offering prayers, he wonders why there must be Fridays in winter! Gibrans is an innocent world: he loves flying kites, flies even dragonflies by tying strings to their tails, skips the madrasa to watch the Nats tamasha, gets caned for stealing a quarter-rupee coin, and when a cat grabs their hen, he asks why He who made the cat also made the hen. One day, news arrives that his father has been arrested on suspicion of terrorism, and Gibrans world turns upside down. Faced with death, parting and abandonment, his only refuge might lie in a world of imagination.Celebrated Urdu writer Mohsin Khans acclaimed first novel, Allah Miyans Workshop, now masterfully translated into English by Maaz Bin Bilal, is a story about childhood and its travails - at once humorous, tender and piercing.