In his novels, forbidden love and politics intermingle, sometimes explosively. Mumbai-based fiction writer Rahman Abbas, who has written five novels, has been described by Rekhta as one of the most read Urdu novelists. His first novel, Nakhlistan Ki Talash (Search of an Oasis, 2004), is a love story narrated by young Muslim man in the city of his birth. The young man joins a Kashmiri militant organization in the wake of growing alienation after the Babri Masjid demolition and the subsequent riots. The novel created a storm in the conservative Urdu literary circles and Abbas was charged for ‘obscenity.’ He had to resign from his post as a lecturer at a college in Mumbai. Abbas’s fourth novel, Rohzin (The Melancholy of the Soul, 2016), has recently been translated into English by Sabika Abbas Naqvi (Penguin Random House).

Like his previous novels, Rohzin explores the complexities of identity, both religious and linguistic, as well as love and desire. It stands out for its bold themes and stylistic experimentation; the author has coined the word Rohzin to capture the trauma of children who witness their parents satiating themselves with sex outside marriage. Set in Mumbai, it portrays a world in which legend and folklore, mythology and history, realism and surrealism, memories and dreams collide and coalesce. His fifth novel, Zindeeq (Arshia Publications), unfolds on a wider canvas. A dystopian novel, it draws a parallel with Nazim’s effect in Europe with the likely impact of religious extremism on the Indian subcontinent. In an interview with Nawaid Anjum, Abbas talks about the overarching themes of his novels, mythological realism and what shapes the terrains of his writing.