Novel
A Seaman's Wife
সারেং বউ
Shahidullah Kaiser · 1962
Synopsis
Kadam, a sareng who sails the seas, marries Nabitun, then sets off again on his ship. Left alone with their daughter, Nabitun never sees the money he sends, which the village notables embezzle; she works in the rice fields to live, defends herself, a hatchet within reach, against the men who covet her, and faces the gossip and the suspicions planted in her husband's mind, with no news of him for three years.
Context
Written during its author's detention under the regime of Ayub Khan, the novel appeared in 1962. It alternates between the life of the sailors, from port to port, and that of the families left ashore, prey to uncertainty and gossip. An English translation, A Seaman's Wife, made by his friend Syed Najmuddin Hashim, had been lost; once found, the manuscript was published by Prothoma in Dhaka in 2019.
Who it is for
A novel of about one hundred and seventy pages in its English translation, centred on a sailor's wife left behind on land.
Prizes and reception
Adamjee Prize in 1962; the film that Abdullah al Mamun made from it in 1978 won Kabori the national prize for best actress.