What Remains After a Fire
By Kanza Javed
Ilqa Publications
ISBN: 978-969-640-361-6
222pp.
Kanza Javed is a relatively new name in the firmament of fiction writers, but she has already made her presence felt. Originally from Lahore, she holds an MFA from West Virginia University, is the winner of the Reynolds Price Prize for Fiction, and her debut novel, Ashes, Wine and Dust was shortlisted for the New American Fiction Prize for 2022.
Her short stories have been featured in American Literary Review, The Punch Magazine and Salamander, as well as in In the New Century: An Anthology of Pakistani Literature. The last one was edited by Muneeza Shamsi and published by Oxford University Press, Pakistan.
What Remains After a Fire is a collection of eight of Javed’s stories. The book gives the reader a taste of the author’s prowess. Javed writes with clarity. She knows what she wants to convey and she weaves the tale to project exactly that. Her stories have an agenda, but that does not mean they are dull or sermonise.
The running thread found across the eight offerings in What Remains After a Fire concerns subjects familiar to Pakistani readers. They encompass patriarchy, the low position of women in society and the fact that it is generally accepted, hypocrisy — especially in overtly religious settings — and marital problems. Javed contends that these issues plague every stratum of society. The rich are not exempted.
The stories are not peopled with happy characters. They have angst, discontentment and a yearning for a better or, at least, a different life. Javed deals with such human emotions with a light touch and deep understanding. She makes her characters’ feelings seem relevant and justified.
A collection of eight compelling short stories examines the quiet devastations of women’s lives, family relationships and social prejudice with empathy and remarkable narrative control
Two stories, ‘Rani’ and ‘The Last Days of Bilqees Begum’, have a great affinity. They are both about women who are facing imminent death. They are cared for by women as well, females who are in that position not by choice but by circumstance. Even though the dying women are not fully lucid, an act of betrayal from their past keeps impinging on their memories, because the perpetrator is someone they loved and trusted. When the wound to the psyche is sufficiently dire, it can never be forgotten.
There are many similarities in the tales titled ‘Stray Things Do Not Carry a Soul’ and ‘Ruby’. They are both about families who are abjectly poor. The narrator in each story is an adolescent who is also a helpless victim. ‘Ruby’ addresses the treatment of minorities in Pakistan as well as the stark contrast between the rich and the poor. On the one hand, there is over-abundance and plenty of waste and, on the other, penury and hopelessness. Yet, the women in both situations are equally dissatisfied.
‘Stray Things Do Not Carry a Soul’ depicts a father who cannot control his demons and is thus unable to set a good example for his son. The young lad hero-worships his father but finally spots his feet of clay. The narrative ends with a whisper of hope, unlike ‘Ruby’.
Three stories which are set in the USA target disparate topics. ‘It Will Follow You Home’, one of the shorter offerings in the book, touches upon mental health issues. It points out that if a therapist and patient are from dissimilar cultures, treatment may not be effective. The heroine struggles with loneliness and death and concludes that the challenges confronting her are fundamentally different from those that immigrant men face.
Like the previous story, ‘My Bones Hold a Stillness’ is also set in an American university. The wanton killing of a young Pakistani student brings out the hidden mental traumas of two friends, one a Pakistani and the other an American. The tale shows that no place is safe and that bad things can happen to anyone at any time. The guilt, the grief and the final release from fear are beautifully limned. This story also deals with paedophilia and the cycle of denial it often sets off in Pakistani homes.
Personality is truly destiny in ‘Worry Doll’, the third story set in the USA. Two women are in analogous situations, yet their responses differ. Are their reactions so diverse only because one is more rooted in tradition? And could the other one be happy elsewhere, or is her restlessness a part of her make-up? These are dilemmas that Javed chooses to probe in this tale.
‘Carry it All’, a very short story, portrays the lot of women in Pakistani society as perceived by the author. Happiness is considered an elusive goal for women. Marriages are fraught with misery and women are blamed for things beyond their control — even among the educated. The ending of this story is ambiguous and borders on the supernatural.
Death, suicide and the sad lot of women are recurring tropes. Even obedient and self-sacrificing wives suffer and females who are divorced or childless are especially punished. Men, on the other hand, are characterised as excessively macho, two-faced, unfeeling and even evil. The reader may not agree with all that the author has to say. However, her writing style cannot be faulted.
Javed is at ease with words. Language soars like a symphony in her hands. She uses ordinary vocabulary to extraordinary effect. In one place, a recently widowed woman “…emerged like an Amaltas tree in full bloom.” Relationships are described as “…paper thin, easily ripped and discarded.”
What Remains After a Fire is easy to read yet impactful. Each story is constructed so that its layers peel away like an onion to get to its heart. The reader gets totally engrossed in the coils of Javed’s imagination. It is Pakistan’s good fortune that another talented young voice has been raised to cement its position on the global literary stage.
We will rely on Kanza Javed to relay our stories to the world. She has done so remarkably well already and her art can only improve in the years to come.
The reviewer is a freelance writer, author of the novel The Tea Trolley and the translator of Toofan Se Pehlay: Safar-i-Europe Ki Diary
Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, July 26th, 2026